NY Times: a dangerous asteroid is approaching Earth, but the end of the world is yet to come

Do not worry. Until there is an opportunity for such an event, you will not be on this planet for long, as will your children; there will probably be no grandchildren.

In a press conference Wednesday, NASA scientists explained that there is a possibility starting in 1750 that an asteroid called Bennu, slightly wider than the height of the Empire State Building, could collide with Earth sometime between now and 2300 years.

This probability is slightly higher than the previously estimated 2,700 of this happening in a shorter period of time, from now until the 2200s.

“This is not a significant change,” said Davide Farnocchia, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and lead author of an article in Icarus magazine. – I’m no more worried about Bennu now than before. The probability of a collision is still very low. “

In any case, Bennu’s trajectory is known with sufficient precision and we can be sure that the probability of a collision in the next century is zero. But after 2135, the future becomes bleaker.