Scientists Predict Devastation If Asteroid Bennu Strikes Earth in 2182

This undated image made available by NASA shows the asteroid Bennu from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/CSA/York/MDA via AP

WASHINGTON—The rocky object called Bennu is classified as a near-Earth asteroid, currently making its closest approach to Earth every six years at about 186,000 miles away. It might come even closer in the future, with scientists estimating a one-in-2,700 chance of a collision with Earth in September 2182.

So what would happen should Bennu strike our planet? Well, it would not be pretty, according to new research based on computer simulations of an impact by an asteroid with a diameter of roughly three-tenths of a mile like Bennu.