Published on February 8, 2017
NASA Spacecraft Set to Explore Giant Asteroid That Could Destroy Earth
Nasa is planning to launch a probe to collect rock samples from an asteroid it fears could one day hit the Earth.
The asteroid, named Bennu, can be seen from Earth as it crosses our orbit every six years.
Bennu, which is around 500 metres in diameter at its equator and travels around the sun at 63,000mph, will pass between Earth and the moon in 2135.
“That 2135 fly-by is going to tweak Bennu’s orbit, potentially putting it on course for the Earth later that century,” Dante Lauretta, professor of planetary science at Arizona University, told The News reports
