Asteroid Bennu has been in Earth's vicinity for 1.75 million years: New study

Marking ar revelation about asteroid Bennu, researchers have w said that celestial body has been closer to Earth for a much longer time than previously estimated. In recent study, published in journal Nature, scientists asserted that asteroid has been in an orbit that brings it close to Earth for 1.75 million years.   asteroid has been in helines over past weeks owing to NASA’s Robotic craft Osiris-Rex's mission to collect asteroid dust. 

Credits: NASA

Besides structure and composition of Bennu, ims sent by OSISRIS –Rex camera setup, have laid open a sea of information. This study, also based upon sent ims, analyses crators of asteroid to estimate how long it has been near planet earth. As of w, Bennu is about 200 million miles away from Earth.

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Bennu broke off from Asteroid Belt

Bennu was once part of a much larger parent body in main asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter, CNN reported quoting scientists. However, after parent asteroid collided, Bennu broke off, shifting to an orbit closer to Earth.

To furr probe into it, researchers analyzed ims of Bennu that show varied crators across asteroid's surface. y n studied, depth of crators to understand when depressions were formed and where impacts that caused craters occurred. Using size and of craters, y created a timeline.

Although scientists couldn’t agree on exact time when asteroid was near earth, y discovered that it arrived in its present orbit nearly 1.75 million years ago.

"An asteroid's history is determined in large part by its strength against collisions with or objects. Our derived exposure of Bennu's boulders is substantially shorter than expected total lifetime of this asteroid after catastrophic disruption of its parent. As source region of (near-Earth asteroids) is main asteroid belt, Bennu has spent most of its life in a collisional environment different than one at its current orbit,” authors wrote in study.

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Main im credits: NASA