Asteroid Bennu reaches highest impact risk level

[Apollon]

Asteroid Bennu, the 500 meter big asteroid, which was the target of the Osiris-Rex mission was levelled up on the highest impact risk. The carbonacious D-type asteroid comes closer to earth than any other obejct of its sie and will zip past earth at just 1/3 of the lunar orbit at the year 2135. That close flyby will affect the orbit of Bennu alot and it could lead to a devastating impact few years later. The calculated impact date now is set at 24th september 2184.

An impact of a 600m big object like Bennu would be similar to the Ries impact 16 million years ago in Germany. The crater would be roughly 25km wide. The entire force set free during impact would be like hundreds of hydrogen bombs. Even before it hits the ground, it would kill millions of people while flying through the atmosphere.

There is still much time to consider what to do, to watch it and think about ways to change its course in case of imminent impact.

Bennu is an interesting object and appears to be a flying rubble pile, hold together by its own gravity, most likely the left over of a collission in space. It even loses matter into space through centrifugal forces and gas shoting out.

 

[Sinnerman108]

Why would gas shoot out of it ?

 

[jamal18]

Is the impact date a certainty?

 

[SD 10]

well i wont be alive by than so no worries

 

[Apollon]

Why would gas shoot out of it ?

Its a carbonacious chondrite. Those come from far out the solar system and contain alot of water and organic substances. The surface is very dark so when closing in to the sun, the surface heats up and gas shots out, similar to comets. This blasts off particles on the surface.

Is the impact date a certainty?

If it does impact, it will bet at that date. The calculations show that this would be the 2nd encounter it has with Earth after the close approach 2135

 

[jamahir]

The carbonacious D-type asteroid comes closer to earth than any other obejct of its sie and will zip past earth at just 1/3 of the lunar orbit at the year 2135. That close flyby will affect the orbit of Bennu alot and it could lead to a devastating impact few years later. The calculated impact date now is set at 24th september 2184.

Well, I think we have more to worry about the Apophis asteroid which is supposed to flyby Earth in 2036, do a round of the Sun and flyby Earth once again in 2036.

Why would gas shoot out of it ?

Good question. And answered nicely by Apollon.

And yaar, I always feel uncomfortable when looking at your post-info box. Can you please change your profile-pic to its opposite - the cat ?

 

[QWECXZ]

Imagine we blow it up to prevent it from hitting our planet and that forever changes the orbits of the planets in the solar system and makes them completely unstable (due to the chaotic nature of the N-body problem) or instead the Earth starts moving towards the Sun.

 

[Apollon]

Imagine we blow it up to prevent it from hitting our planet and that forever changes the orbits of the planets in the solar system and makes them completely unstable (due to the chaotic nature of the N-body problem) or instead the Earth starts moving towards the Sun.

You cant blow asteroids up, thats mostly science fiction. It would be better to send a pacecraft near it into orbit which over time changes its orbit slightly.

Well, I think we have more to worry about the Apophis asteroid which is supposed to flyby Earth in 2036, do a round of the Sun and flyby Earth once again in 2036.



Good question. And answered nicely by Apollon.

And yaar, I always feel uncomfortable when looking at your post-info box. Can you please change your profile-pic to its opposite - the cat ?

You know whats interesting? Carbonacious asteroids are the rarest form of asteroids only 5% of all fallen meteorids are carbonacious chondrites...but from the 15 largest impact structures on the earth....12 were caused by cabonacious asteroids. The famous dinosaur killer "Chicxulub" was one as well. There is something going on we still dont understand, why the most rarest type of asteroid is also the one most likely to cause devastating impacts.

 

[Sinnerman108]

Its a carbonacious chondrite. Those come from far out the solar system and contain alot of water and organic substances. The surface is very dark so when closing in to the sun, the surface heats up and gas shots out, similar to comets. This blasts off particles on the surface.



If it does impact, it will bet at that date. The calculations show that this would be the 2nd encounter it has with Earth after the close approach 2135

Gas shooting out means, that the asteroid's gravity (however small) is defeated.
and the force that causes the gassification is present internal to the asteroid.

I can take it, that some material does heat up and evaporate; however that can not be called gas shooting out.

And yaar, I always feel uncomfortable when looking at your post-info box. Can you please change your profile-pic to its opposite - the cat ?

See the picture that @Apollon has,
they are the ancient Minoan
Very fascinating civilization ..

 

[QWECXZ]

You cant blow asteroids up, thats mostly science fiction. It would be better to send a pacecraft near it into orbit which over time changes its orbit slightly.

I don't think any man-made spacecraft has a mass large enough to change the orbit of an asteroid, even in minuscule seconds of a degree. And that still does not solve the problem of the unpredictable consequences of this slight diversion.

I am pretty sure that new generations of nuclear weapons can blow asteroids up. I mean, why not? Meanwhile, have you seen China's artificial sun? It reached 120 million Celsius degrees. That's probably hot enough to vaporize a lot of materials around it instantaneously and we still have time to reach higher Celsius degrees until then.

 

[jamahir]

You know whats interesting? Carbonacious asteroids are the rarest form of asteroids only 5% of all fallen meteorids are carbonacious chondrites...but from the 15 largest impact structures on the earth....12 were caused by cabonacious asteroids. The famous dinosaur killer "Chicxulub" was one as well. There is something going on we still dont understand, why the most rarest type of asteroid is also the one most likely to cause devastating impacts.

But won't this "flying rubble pile" disintegrate when entering the Earth's atmosphere ? And even before entering won't Earth's gravity disintegrate it ?

 

[Apollon]

I don't think any man-made spacecraft has a mass large enough to change the orbit of an asteroid, even in minuscule seconds of a degree. And that still does not solve the problem of the unpredictable consequences of this slight diversion.

I am pretty sure that new generations of nuclear weapons can blow asteroids up. I mean, why not? Meanwhile, have you seen China's artificial sun? It reached 120 million Celsius degrees. That's probably hot enough to vaporize a lot of materials around it instantaneously and we still have time to reach higher Celsius degrees until then.

Thats the thing buddy, this one was already blown up and it clumped back together through its own gravity. You have no shockwave in space, so this flying rubble pile will always just clump together again like wet sand. It takes any punch like a punching bag.

You need no super massive spacecraft when you have much time. Even a 100 ton vehicle could move it away when it has 20 or more years. We talk about extreme distances so any mm pshed aside makes a big thing.

But won't this "flying rubble pile" disintegrate when entering the Earth's atmosphere ? And even before entering won't Earth's gravity disintegrate it ?

It will but it will still be 60 million tons of matetr slamming through the atmosphere within 5 seconds and hit the ground. It will only be stretched into a elongated form. Similar to the Eltanin impact in the south pacific 1 million years ago. So the impact stays same as it would be one solid object.

Gas shooting out means, that the asteroid's gravity (however small) is defeated.
and the force that causes the gassification is present internal to the asteroid.

I can take it, that some material does heat up and evaporate; however that can not be called gas shooting out.


See the picture that @Apollon has,
they are the ancient Minoan
Very fascinating civilization ..

Its called exactly that " gas jets". ^^

 

[hunter_hunted]

I just finished Deep Impact movie

 

[QWECXZ]

Thats the thing buddy, this one was already blown up and it clumped back together through its own gravity. You have no shockwave in space, so this flying rubble pile will always just clump together again like wet sand. It takes any punch like a punching bag.

You need no super massive spacecraft when you have much time. Even a 100 ton vehicle could move it away when it has 20 or more years. We talk about extreme distances so any mm pshed aside makes a big thing.

But there doesn't have to be a shock wave for something to turn into pieces and never clump back together.
If the force that is exerted on the mass is huge enough, its pieces can reach escape velocity and do not get trapped in their own gravitational fields. That's pretty much how the Moon was formed from the Earth, but because the force was not strong enough, the Moon was trapped in a closed orbit. If the collision force is large enough, the orbit doesn't have to be elliptical anymore.

I'm not sure if 10 tonnes would be enough but nevertheless of how it's done, the problem of orbit instability remains a major problem for whatever solution that we come up.

 

[Apollon]

But there doesn't have to be a shock wave for something to turn into pieces and never clump back together.
If the force that is exerted on the mass is huge enough, its pieces can reach escape velocity and do not get trapped in their own gravitational fields. That's pretty much how the Moon was formed from the Earth, but because the force was not strong enough, the Moon was trapped in a closed orbit. If the collision force is large enough, the orbit doesn't have to be elliptical anymore.

I'm not sure if 10 tonnes would be enough but nevertheless of how it's done, the problem of orbit instability remains a major problem for whatever solution that we come up.

Thats the problem, we have no device to bring 60 million tons to reach escape velocitive. The sad truth is, not even the russian tsar bomb could blast up Bennu and thats a small obejct. A large one like Chicxulub would totally **** us up xD

You know i always wonder what the Chicxulub impact was like. Its so drastic...one day earth is a paradise and one hour later a global hell.

Its also funny how we humans brag with our weapons and compared to that...eve all nukes combined are nothing.