Doomsday 2182? (You Don’t Actually Need to Worry About the Bennu Asteroid)

Odds of an Asteroid Strike: Low. Odds of Sensational Headlines: High.

“Did you hear about the asteroid?” said my partner over Sunday morning’s first sip of coffee.

“Oh, you mean the one that the samples just returned from?”

“No. The Asteroid.”

“The asteroid?”, I said, incredulously taking another sip of my latte

“The one that’s going to kill us all — I read that there is an actual chance it’ll strike Earth.”

“Soon? Do you know where it’s going to hit? The ocean, I’d guess…”

“No, Liv, a big asteroid. A doomsday asteroid. It could wipe out all life in 2182”

I was stunned, to say the least. Even considering such an event is humbling — and more than mildly existentially perturbing. I turned to the internet to verify and immediately saw confirmations of what my partner had said: “Asteroid Bennu Could Shatter Earth”; “NASA said an asteroid could hit Earth”; “Asteroid as big as the Empire State Building may one day hit Earth” and similar titles littered Google News.

But something felt off. These articles sounded more sensational than NASA tends to be — my nerd senses were…