The powerful horizontal meteorite of 3 billion tons of explosives is getting closer to Earth

The meteorite named Bennu flies past Earth's orbit every 6 years and has moved closer to Earth since its discovery in 1999.

In 2135, Bennu will fly over between the Earth and the Moon, the dangerous distance judged by astronomers. Gravity from Earth could affect Bennu's orbit, making it possible to fall to the planet at the end of the following century, New York Post quoted Dante Lauretta, professor of planetary science at Arizona University, USA. , said.

Bennu has a diameter of about 487m and moves around the Sun at an average speed of 101,000km / h. Its ability to collide with Earth is very small but worth noting. If a collision occurs, the impact will be equivalent to activating three billion tons of explosives and 200 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. "In terms of size, Bennu could cause a global disaster , " said Professor Mark Bailey of Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland.

Bennu meteorite 487m in diameter can cause global disaster on Earth.(Illustration: NASA).

The US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) will launch the Osiris-Rex probe on the meteorite Bennu in September. The exploration of the probe will include a year of spinning around the Sun to accelerate before it returns to Earth and lends the planet's gravity to the meteorite orbit.

As expected, Osiris-Rex will approach the meteorite Bennu in August 2018. Later, Osiris-Rex will spend a year mapping meteorites and hovering above its surface to sample some crumbs before flying back to Earth.

For scientists, the opportunity to collect specimens from carbon meteorites is very interesting. " B ennu is a carbon meteorite , an ancient ruins from the early solar system filled with organic molecules , " Lauretta said. "Meteorites like Bennu may have brought this material to Earth, contributing to the original environment where life was born."

The most important task of Osiris-Rex is the newly discovered force named Yarkovsky . This force can motivate moving meteorites around the solar system and fly towards Earth. It makes Bennu's route difficult to predict. Scientists found Bennu's position shifted 160 km since 1999. "We know everything about Bennu, including size, volume and composition. This can be important information for generations. The future, " Lauretta said.