Last month, NASA performed a simulation of what might happen if an asteroid were on a collision course with Earth. Sometime the day before, scientists say, there is a small chance that an asteroid the size of the Empire State Building will smack into Earth, destroying a lot of living things on the planet. Brent W. Barbee, the NASA aerospace engineer who helped author the study, insists that it is all theoretical. Researchers detect about 1,000 new objects each year; 10,000 extraterrestrial objects beelining for Earth could still be unaccounted for. What Asteroid Bennu provides, besides pretty good fodder for a doomsday cult, is an opportunity for scientists to test those theories.

Source: Washington Post March 19, 2018 21:22 UTC