The asteroid, dubbed Bennu, passes Earth every six years, but asteroids predict that it will make an impact on Earth on a day in September many years from now.

NASA has been developing measures to detour Bennu off the asteroid’s impact track. Their mission is currently in its final stages.

Richard Burns, project manager for OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, outlined the entire process of diverting it.

“We are now in the final leg of this seven-year journey,” he added, “and it feels very much like the last few miles of a marathon, with a confluence of emotions like pride and joy coexisting with a determined focus to complete the race well.”

Bennu is approximately a third of a mile across, making it half the size of the asteroid assumed to have killed dinosaurs. If Bennu collides with Earth, it will cause damage 600 miles away, but not enough to trigger global extinction.

You’ll be even happier to learn that the chances of Bennu hitting our planet and wreaking havoc on future generations are quite remote.

According to NASA, while there is a possibility, there is a ‘very tiny likelihood’ that Bennu may collide with Earth on September 24, 2182.

We don’t have to worry for a long time because the date is approaching the end of the 22nd century.

The OSIRIS-REx research team recently published an article stating that there is a 1:2700 (0.037%) chance that this missile will make it to Earth on September 24, 2182.

“Although the odds of this actually happening are difficult to calculate, new data from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has allowed scientists to better model how Bennu’s orbit will evolve over time and to better calculate the probability of an impact,” NASA said.

Bennu will come close to Earth on September 25, 2135. According to NASA, Bennu’s position in 2182 will change depending on how the 2135 flyby proceeds. Bennu has a one in 1,750 probability of hitting Earth by 2300.