Asteroid Bennu Could Hit Earth, What Could It Mean For Our Planet?

Bennu, the 500 meters wide asteroid may hit Earth during the latter part of the 22 century, however it won't cause major damage to our world as per reports. Incidentally, NASA is sending the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to Bennu next month on a new asteroid sampling mission.

The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission, that costs $800 million, is reportedly scheduled to launch from the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sept. 8. The spacecraft will trail after Bennu for two years to get an opportune moment to meet it sometime during August 2018. After chasing down the asteroid, the spacecraft will study it for two years from orbit, after which it will collect around 60 grams of materials from the surface in July 2020.

The spacecraft is expected to reach back our planet in 2023, and then researchers the world over will analyze and study the sample materials collected from the comet in numerous ways. The main aim of the mission is to throw more light on the role of primitive, dark and carbon rich objects like Bennu in kick starting life on our planet.

"Did these kinds of bodies deliver organic material and water, in the form of hydrated minerals like clays, to the surface of our planet that created the habitability and the environments that may have led to the origin of life?" said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator. "That's the prime mission, to investigate that question".

Asteroid Bennu is listed among the most potentially dangerous asteroids, and there is a 0.037 percent chance that it will collide with our planet sometime during the latter part of the 22nd century during a close flyby, according to researchers from NASA. Scientists believe that with the help of the OSIRIS-Rex, they will know more about the asteroid's orbit, which in turn will help them recalculate the impact probability.  As per scientists, if asteroid Bennu indeed strikes our planet, then it could devastate a local region but will not cause mass extinction or wipe out life. In addition, researchers hope by the time Bennu is close to Earth, mankind would have already developed enough to nudge the asteroid off its course with kinetic impactors, gravity tractor probes or even nuclear reactors if there is not too much time on hand.