Asteroid Bennu, an asteroid that may hit Earth within the next 200 years, now has a bigger chance of hitting Earth in the future than previously thought. Even though the chance of it hitting us is higher, there is still a very low chance that it will hit us. The chance of the collision is only a 1 in 1,750 chance, which is up from a 1 in 2,700 chance. A few years ago, a spacecraft – NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft – was sent to asteroid Bennu to collect samples. The spacecraft is on it’s way back – it will arrive on Earth in 2023. Because of Osiris Rex, scientists were able to find out that their previous estimate of a 1 in 2700 chance was incorrect.
On September 24, 2182, the odds of the asteroid hitting will be the highest. Even if asteroid Bennu hit Earth, it wouldn’t wipe out all life – it would create a crate 10 to 20 times bigger than it, and the area of the damage will be up to 100 times bigger than the crater. So that means that the damage radius will be 1000 to 2000 times bigger than the asteroid.
