Science fiction is loaded to the brim with films depicting an apocalyptic scenario where an asteroid hits our planet and leads to a catastrophe that threatens to wipe out humanity, but no such asteroid impact event of devastating scale has happened in the recorded human history so far. Even Harry Stamper would probably like these odds. Still, there’s always a risk that an asteroid's natural trajectory gets altered and it heads on a cataclysmic crash course with Earth. NASA has shed new light on an asteroid named Bennu that has a 0.037 percent probability of making an impact with Earth on September 24th in the year 2182. Recently NASA updated its forecast of the chances that the asteroid Bennu, one of the two most hazardous known objects in our solar system, will hit Earth in the next 300 years. Science fiction is loaded to the brim with films depicting an apocalyptic scenario where an asteroid hits our planet and leads to a catastrophe that threatens to wipe out. New calculations put the odds at 1 in 1,750, a figure slightly higher than previously thought. After OSIRIS REx grabbed a sample a coupe of weeks ago many people remarked on how the asteroid just seemed to disintegrate when sampled. So far, NASA has documented only two asteroids in our solar system that pose a serious threat - Bennu and 1950 DA. The latter has an impact probability of 1 in 300 on March 16th in the year 2880, but NASA research shows that the collision probability is anywhere between 0 and 0.33 percent based on available data. Even though the predicted impact date is over eight centuries away, studying it might help understand asteroid trajectory and be prepared, should another unpredictable threat arrive.
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