Tracking Potential Impacts Over Time
Use the controls at the bottom of the OrbitViewer to watch the motion of asteroid Bennu. Adjust the time display speed (Time Step) by moving the button along the bar at the right. Press the play/pause button when Bennu is located on the green orbit of Earth. (If you overshoot you can use the skip backward button.)
Even if an asteroid isn’t going to hit Earth in the next few years, that doesn’t mean the asteroid won’t hit Earth in the future. Every time there is a close encounter between an asteroid and a massive object, like one of the planets, the gravitational attraction between the planet and asteroid can alter the orbit of the asteroid, making an impact possible in the future. For this reason, it’s important that we keep monitoring asteroids.
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