Astronomers are concerned about Bennu because a direct impact by an asteroid its size could cause “immense suffering and death” to humanity.
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But NASA isn’t going to Bennu just because of a possible collision in the future.
“The Yarkovsky effect describes the force that acts on a small asteroid when it absorbs sunlight and radiates it back into space as heat”.
Lauretta says that, if Bennu were to hit Earth, its impact would be equivalent to setting off 3 billion tons of high explosives, similar in potential effect to the asteroid that may have wiped out most life on the planet 66 million years ago – though that asteroid is thought to have been about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) across.
For scientists, the chance of obtaining chunks of a carbonaceous asteroid is exciting.
He added: “Bennu’s position has shifted 160km since 1999”. It would use the planet’s gravity to align Earth’s orbit with Bennu. It plans to launch the OSIRIS-REx probe next month.
“It may be destined to cause vast suffering and death”, Dante Lauretta, professor of planetary science at Arizona University and the lead researcher on the OSIRIS-REx mission, told the Sunday Times.
Lauretta is heading NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.
“We estimate the chance of impact at about one in 2,700 between 2175 and 2196”, said Lauretta.
The estimated risk is significant Professor Lauretta explained, adding that “it [Bennu] may be destined to cause huge suffering and death”.
“Bennu falls on the boundary, in terms of size, for an object capable of causing a global catastrophe”, Professor Mark Bailey of Northern Ireland’s Armagh Observatory told the Times.
For two years after the sample return, the science team will catalogue the sample and conduct the analysis needed to meet the mission science goals. The asteroid could provide clues as to the very origin of life.
The probe will collect samples from the asteroid while hovering over its surface.
After the selection of the final site, the spacecraft will briefly touch the surface of Bennu to retrieve a sample.
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is planning to send a probe team, to an asteroid in space, to analyse as it is expected that it might hit Earth’s surface.
