NASA scientists say they know the day, date and year a 1,610-foot wide asteroid could smash into Earth, releasing some 1,400 megatons of energy.
And, lucky for us, it’s 159 years from Sunday.
According to a NASA calculation, the asteroid called Bennu could hit Earth on Sept. 24, 2182, or, we could miss it.
Odds are about 1 in 2,700 that the space rock will hit Earth, per a 2021 study.
Bennu is not new to scientists. In fact, the possibility of the asteroid hitting Earth has made Bennu particularly interesting to researchers.
NASA launched a seven-year-long mission to study Bennu. Part of the mission will hopefully be realized Sunday, when a sample that was mined from the asteroid will be flung to Earth.
The capsule carrying the sample is planned to fall back to Earth on Sunday morning, landing in Utah around 10:55 a.m. ET.
NASA hopes the sample will help them better understand how the planet was formed, as Bennu was likely created at about the same time as Earth, about 4.5 billion years ago, NASA said.
If Bennu, a rock that is bigger than the Empire State Building, were to hit the Earth, it would hit the planet at about seven miles per second, and be able to flatten a large city, according to NASA.
