WASHINGTON — If you manage to develop an anti-aging diet, or create a time machine, or in some other way manage to be alive and on Earth on the Tuesday afternoon of September 24, 2182, then there is a chance that you might be looking up to see a big asteroid flashing down towards Earth. Here are the details: <br /> <br /> <br />NPR reports NASA scientists calculated that Asteroid Bennu has a higher chance of hitting Earth than previously thought. <br /> <br /> <br />The scientists used new data from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to make a more precise calculation of Bennu’s orbit. <br /> <br /> <br />That spacecraft managed to snatch a sample of dusty pebbles from the asteroid in October last year and is currently on its way back to Earth to drop off the precious cargo. <br /> <br /> <br />NASA found that the single likeliest impact moment would be on the afternoon of September 24, 2182. <br /> <br /> <br />On that Tuesday, Bennu has about a 1-in-2,700 chance of hitting Earth. <br /> <br /> <br />An impact would pack the energy of more than 1.1 billion tons of TNT, roughly two million times the energy of last year’s devastating port explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. <br /> <br /> <br />The NASA team reached its revised estimate by pinpointing Bennu’s distance from Earth to within about seven feet at dozens of times between 2019 and 2020. <br /> <br /> <br />That level of precision is like measuring the distance between the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower to within a few thousandths of an inch. <br /> <br /> <br />The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at Bennu in late 2018 as NASA’s first — and humankind’s third — attempt to sample the surface of an asteroid. <br /> <br /> <br />The spacecraft managed to successfully snatch a sample in October of 2020 and is currently on its way back to Earth with it. <br /> <br /> <br />Before grabbing the sample, OSIRIS-REx spent nearly two years orbiting and studying rubble-strewn Bennu. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
