No one would blame you if you didn’t care about what might happen to Earth on September 25, 2135.
However, scientists are concerned about a tiny likelihood – no more than 1 on 2700 according to the current calculations – that an asteroid, which is longer than the US-based Empire State and 1664 times heavier than the Titanic found deep in the Atlantic last century, may hit our planet.
If this hit actually occurs, it is estimated that its resulting kinetic energy would reach 1,200 megatons, 80,000 times the energy of the atomic bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima in the World War II; Therefore, no one would blame you either if you feel happy for not being there if this disaster took place.
Kirsten Hawley, physicist at the Lawrence Livermore Lab, California said: “The chances of falling of an asteroid to Earth are vanishingly small right now, however, the consequences would be truly catastrophic,” the Lawrence Livermore Lab dedicates its efforts in recruiting science and technology in the service of national security.
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore Lab are part of a national team to defend the planet. The team includes NASA, the National Nuclear Security Agency and Los Alamos National Lab. The team designed a virtual spacecraft to convert the paths of asteroids heading to Earth.
The team assessed whether it would be able to convert the path of the giant asteroid called “101955 Bennu” that may hit Earth in 2135.
The German News Agency said that NASA classified the asteroid “Bennu” as one of the most dangerous astronomical objects that have been monitored near the planet so far; more than 10,000 space object have been detected. To learn more about this deadly asteroid, NASA launched in 2016 the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to map out the asteroid and bring samples from it. The cost of this first-of-its-kind trip launched by the United States is estimated at $1 billion.
The asteroid was previously known as the 1999 RK36, but a nine-year-old American boy named it “Bennu” in a 2013 contest to refer to an ancient phoenix bird that has the shape of a gray eagle.
The asteroid’s diameter is about 500 meters; it is rich in carbon and is believed to contain organic matter or molecular evidence on life existence. The space object weighs nearly 79 billion kilograms, orbiting the Sun at a speed of more than 100,000 kilometers per hour.
This asteroid approaches the Earth once every six years.
