NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is apparently coming home Sunday to deliver us an asteroid sample.
The spacecraft successfully descended onto the asteroid Bennu back in 2020, and is expected to deliver its payload back to Earth on Sunday, according to NASA. The sample from Bennu is going to crash down in Utah, ABC News reported.
“This is pure untainted material revealing early solar system secrets. A longshot discovery would be finding biological molecules or even precursor molecules for life,” astrophysicist Hakeem Oluyesi told the outlet.
We are counting down the days! ⏳
On Sunday, Sept. 24, the #OSIRISREx spacecraft will deliver a sample capsule containing a rocky material collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu to Earth.
Here’s how the delivery will work >> https://t.co/tU0YJ0TX8P pic.twitter.com/Oa5Wh9nvgT
— NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) September 18, 2023
The same space rock is also forecast to potentially hit Earth in the year 2182, but passes us by every six years, according to ABC. And we’ve had some pretty close impact calls, according to a study published in 2021. Bennu has skimmed past us in 1999, 2005 and 2011, and even the smallest alteration of its trajectory could send it directly at us. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Graham Hancock Gives Epic Response To Those Ignoring Our Vulnerability In The Cosmos)
If and when this happens, Bennu has the power to release 1,200 megatons of every. That’s 24 times larger than almost all manmade atomic bombs, according to ABC.
It’s totally wild that NASA now assumes it knows when this asteroid is going to hit us. You might remember how NASA, and any other major national space agency, somehow missed a massive asteroid on a seriously dangerous collision course with Earth back in January.