Simulations of a potential impact by a hill-sized space rock event next century have revealed the rough ride humanity would be in for, hinting at what it’d take for us to survive such a catastrophe.

It’s been a long, long time since Earth has been smacked by a large asteroid, but that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear. Space is teeming with rocks, and many of those are blithely zipping around on trajectories that could bring them into violent contact with our planet.

One of those is asteroid Bennu, the recent lucky target of an asteroid sample collection mission. In a mere 157 years – September of 2,182 CE, to be precise – it has a chance of colliding with Earth.

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Astronomers have also calculated a predicted impact zone that stretches from South America across the Atlantic Ocean to sub-Saharan Africa.

The asteroid has the potential to cause significant damage, especially if it lands in a densely populated area like a major city due to it being the size of another space rock that hit Earth in 1908 with a blast equivalent to detonating 50 million tons of TNT.

Though estimates suggest a very small increase in the likelihood of impact, astronomer and professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Richard P Binzel told DailyMail.com that it is nothing to worry about.

Curtin University researchers have gained an unprecedented glimpse into the early history of our solar system through some of the most well-preserved asteroid samples ever collected, potentially transforming our understanding of planetary formation and the origins of life.

Experts from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences were selected to be among the first in the world to inspect samples collected during NASA’s seven-year, OSIRIS-REx mission to the ancient asteroid Bennu.

Asteroid Bennu is thought to be made of rubble fragments from a 4.5-billion-year-old parent body, containing materials that originated beyond Saturn, which was destroyed long ago in a collision with another object.

A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles.

It may sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than one percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years.

Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes.

Researchers at MIT have developed a method to detect small asteroids in the main asteroid belt, significantly improving our ability to spot objects as little as 10 meters across.

This new technique, which identified 138 space rocks ranging from bus-to stadium-sized, allows for earlier detection and better tracking of potential near-Earth objects, enhancing planetary defense. The approach, using data from telescopes initially aimed at exoplanets, has uncovered over a hundred new asteroids, with implications for understanding asteroid origins and collision processes.

Advancements in Asteroid Detection.

The asteroid that extinguished the dinosaurs is estimated to have been about 10 kilometers across. That’s about as wide as Brooklyn, New York. Such a massive impactor is predicted to hit Earth rarely, once every 100 million to 500 million years.

In contrast, much smaller asteroids, about the size of a bus, can strike Earth more frequently, every few years. These “decameter” asteroids, measuring just tens of meters across, are more likely to escape the main asteroid belt and migrate in to become near-Earth objects. If they make impact, these small but mighty space rocks can send shockwaves through entire regions, such as the 1908 impact in Tunguska, Siberia, and the 2013 asteroid that broke up in the sky over Chelyabinsk, Urals. Being able to observe decameter main-belt asteroids would provide a window into the origin of meteorites.

The team’s detection method, which identified 138 space rocks ranging from bus-to stadium-sized, could aid in tracking potential asteroid impactors.

A small asteroid burned up in Earth’s atmosphere off the coast of California just hours after being discovered and before impact monitoring systems had registered its trajectory.

Last month, an asteroid impacted Earth’s atmosphere just hours after being detected — somehow, it managed to circumvent impact monitoring systems during its approach to our planet. However, on the bright side, the object measured just 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter and posed very little threat to anything on Earth’s surface.

This asteroid, designated 2024 UQ, was first discovered on Oct. 22 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey in Hawaii, a network of four telescopes that scan the sky for moving objects that might be space rocks on a collision course with Earth. Two hours later, the asteroid burned up over the Pacific Ocean near California, making it an “imminent impactor.”

An asteroid struck Mars 11 million years ago and sent pieces of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these chunks of Mars eventually crashed into the Earth somewhere near Purdue University and is one of the few meteorites that can be traced directly to Mars. This meteorite was rediscovered in a drawer at Purdue University in 1931 and named the Lafayette Meteorite.