NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission has managed to predict the trajectory for the coming centuries of an asteroid 500 meters in diameter (an island in Barcelona’s Eixample, a little more than 100 meters on each side) that from 2135 could collide with the Earth, although the possibility is low, just 1 between 1750 and 2300 or, put another way, 0.057%.
From now on, scientists will intensify the study of the asteroid, called Bennu. In the year 2135 it could cross a region of space where the gravity exerted by a planet can alter the orbit of an asteroid, which could bring it directly into Earth.
However, NASA insists that the probability of impact is really small. Of course, if it happens, it could release the energy of 70,000 atomic bombs like the one in Hiroshima and create a crater 5 kilometers in diameter, more or less half of Barcelona’s Diagonal Avenue, from Forum Park to Passeig de Gràcia. .
They also emphasize that the risk of Bennu as an individual asteroid is smaller than the risks of other objects of similar size not yet discovered, which is why the North American space agency is making a great effort to discover more objects close to Earth. more than 140 meters in diameter.
