NASA is planning to launch a landing on an 'Armageddon' asteroid as it may one day completely crush the earth into pieces.
Named Bennu, the asteroid crosses the earth's orbit once in every six years. In 2135, it is expected to come between the moon and the earth with the likelihood of threatening our existence from a distance as wide as a nail's breadth.
The asteroid, which has edged closer to the earth since 1999 according to The New York Post, can brush the earth at such close quarters that our planet's gravity can literally put "it on course for the
Earth later that century," says Dante Lauretta, a planetary science professor at Arizona University.
The asteroid measures nearly 487 metres in diameter and orbits the sun at an average speed of 101,000 km per hour.
Earth later that century," says Dante Lauretta, a planetary science professor at Arizona University.
The asteroid measures nearly 487 metres in diameter and orbits the sun at an average speed of 101,000 km per hour.
NASA will launch its Osiris-Rex probe mission to land on Bennu this September. It will orbit the sun for a year before gathering speed and using the earth's gravity to align itself with Bennu's orbit. It will finally land on the asteroid in August 2018. After that, the probe will spend another year on the asteroid to map its surface before making its way back to the earth.
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