NASA scientist warns 'risk of asteroid impact is real' and 'consequences are huge'
Professor Dante Lauretta has urged people to consider how there 'could be something coming' as they look up into the sky, noting that 'the risk of an asteroid impact is real'
A NASA scientist has warned that "the risk of an asteroid impact is real" and the "consequences would be huge" as he urges people to think about how "there could be something coming".
Planetary scientist Professor Dante Lauretta is the leader of NASA's OSIRIS-REx, the first US mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. In October 2020 the mission was successful and Lauretta helped to collect samples from an asteroid known as Bennu.
The mission saw the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft travelling to Bennu before a robotic arm collected a sample of the asteroid as it flew by. The spacecraft delivered the samples back to Earth in September 2023 by releasing a capsule containing grains of Bennu over Earth's atmosphere.
The spacecraft has since been renamed OSIRIS-APEX and has been sent on a new mission to explore the asteroid Apophis in 2029. Lauretta documented the incredible effort it took to make the mission a success in his book The Asteroid Hunter, which was released earlier this year.
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But while the asteroid sample scientist has spent decades being fascinated by the rocky space objects, he's also vary aware of the dangers they pose to us here on Earth.
"The risk of an asteroid impact is real. It’s small. But the consequences are huge," Lauretta told Inverse. He pointed to one terrifying incident to highlight the dangers.
In February 2013, a meteor measuring around 19 meters in diameter and weighing a whopping 12,000 tonnes sped toward Earth at 65,000 kilometres per hour and entered the atmosphere over Siberia, Russia.
The asteroid blew apart 14 miles above the ground of Chelyabinsk. Locals witnessed a flash, sonic boom and glass shattering everywhere as the explosion released the energy equivalent of around 440,000 tons of TNT and the show wave blew out windows over 200 square miles and damaged some buildings.
Lauretta noted: "The event in Chelyabinsk really showed us. That was a true asteroid impact over a populated area. It was a really small object, as these things go, but it still caused damage. Hundreds of people were injured, and the property was destroyed. It woke everybody up."
He continued: "That reminded me of the comet that struck Jupiter in 1994. Same kind of awareness. We live our lives with our heads down with all our daily struggles. But every once in a while, you look up, and you go, you know, there could be something coming, and maybe we should think about it. These kinds of high-profile events catalyze a lot more activity in these areas, absolutely."
NASA has confirmed that Apophis, the asteroid the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft has now been sent to explore, will fly past Earth safely in 2029 and 2968. But Bennu could strike Earth in 2182.
If that happens, it could result in a fireball brighter than the Sun and even create a four-mile-wide crater where rocks as large as 16-story buildings could rain down. It sounds like a truly chilling prediction, but Lauretta doesn't let the more terrifying side of asteroids keep him up at night.
He explained: "The forces that are out there are unbelievably powerful. Once you kind of appreciate that, you can’t help but feel tiny. An asteroid impact is one facet of that. The universe is such an amazing place to explore. There are beautiful things, but there are dangerous things. Our place is very precious. At the end of the day, I come away grateful that I’m here, that I’m alive."
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