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NASA recalculates the probability of an asteroid hitting Earth

NASA

At a press conference, NASA scientists revealed that there is a 1 in 1,750 chance that an asteroid called Bennu, the size of the Empire State Building in New York, will hit Earth before 2,300, the New York Times reported.

The estimate suggests a slightly more potential risk compared to the previous estimate of 1 in 2,700 over a shorter period, between now and 2,200. Propulsion Laboratory scientist David Farnocchia said. NASA Jet (California, USA). “I’m no longer worried about Beno any more than before. The probability of impact is still very small‘ insisted the specialist.

Anyway, Benno’s path is known with enough accuracy to prove it The chances of collision will be nil for the next century. However, this celestial body is approaching the orbit of our planet and in the year 2135 it will come close to a distance equal to half the path between the Earth and the Moon. It will be the most worrying day September 24, 2182, but there will be only 0.037% probability of influence.

Bennu’s width is about half a kilometer. A collision with such an object would not be strong enough to cause a general extinction of life on this planet, but it could happen. It can cause great damage. “As a general rule, you can say that the crater will be 10 to 20 times the size of the object,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer. “Any body half a kilometer in size will create a crater with a diameter of at least 5, and possibly 10 kilometers in diameter. But the damaged area […] It will be wide, 100 times the size of the hole.”

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