An asteroid might collide with Earth in the year 2182, and scientists are working to avoid it

NASA scientists have revealed that they are in the last leg of their mission to avert a possible asteroid hitting the Earth, 159 years from now. Experts believe that the asteroid, named Bennu could hit the Earth on 24 September 2182.

This catastrophic event, however, has a 1 in 2,700 possibility of strikingEarth, but experts are taking no chances and areconcerned about the slightprobability. So much so, that, seven years ago, NASA launched a spacecraft to Bennu in order to collect samples in the hope of obtaining some data that can help in averting the catastrophe, if and when it happens.

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Bennu asteroid

The asteroid was discovered back in 1999and passes close to Earth about every six years, as per NASA. The space rock is believed to be the same size as the Empire State Building with the force of 22 atom bombs.

In 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft descended on the surface of asteroid Bennu and collected rocky materialfrom a sample site, named Nightingale during its Touch-and-Go (TAG) sample collection manoeuvre.

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Scientists believe that Bennu, an ancient relic of our solar system, has seen more than 4.5 billion years of history.

Naming of asteroid Bennu- Its original designation was 1999 RQ36. It was in 2013that the name was changed to Bennu after a third-grade student named Michael Puzio won a contest to name the asteroid.

NASA’s plan to avert Earth-asteroid Bennu collision

Rich Burns, project manager for OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told the Sunday Telegraph: “We are now in the final leg of this seven-year journey, and it feels very much like the last few miles of a marathon, with a confluence of emotions like pride and joy coexisting with a determined focus to complete the race well.”

But what is this plan that took NASA scientists seven years?

The asteroid samples from the OSIRIS-REx mission will reach Earth next week, entering the Earth’s atmosphere at around 3.42 pm BST Sunday.

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A fridge-sized capsule containing the samples will be fired to Earth from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft once it reaches a distance of 63,000 miles from the planet. It will then travel towards Earth at a speed of nearly 28,000 mph and reach temperatures twice as hot as lava.

Before touching down in the Utah desert, parachutes will be deployed to slow the capsule down to 11mph so it can land safely at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range southwest of Salt Lake City.

In order to avoid contaminating the samples from Bennu, the recovery team must retrieve the capsule from the ground as quickly as possible.

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Findings from the mission might not only protect the planet from a catastrophic collision but also hold secrets about the origin of life on Earth.

The mission echoes the 1998 Bruce Willis film Armageddon. In the film, Willis stops an asteroid the size of Texas from hitting Earth by landing on it and splitting it in two with a nuclear bomb.

(With inputs from agencies)

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