Asteroid Bennu Crashing Simulation Reveals Catastrophic Effects

Asteroid Bennu is a larger rock floating in space and according to experts has a 0.037% chance of colliding with Earth in the next 157 years. Some climate scientists in South Korea have created a stimulation of this asteroid hitting Earth to better understand the damage it could cause.

Possible Effects Of Asteroid Bennu Colliding with Earth

In a recently published document, Lan Dai and Axel Timmermann explain the results of their asteroid Bennu stimulation, hence highlighting the potential damage to Earth. Asteroid Bennu is about 500 meters in size, which is considerably small to much larger asteroids that are under observation.

Regardless of its size, this asteroid is capable of inflicting significant damage to the Earth. To better understand the effects of this collision, Lan and Axel used an Aleph supercomputer to stimulate the collision of a 500-meter asteroid on Earth.

From the document, we learn that a “potential collision of such medium-sized asteroids can inject massive amounts of dust into the atmosphere, with unknown consequences for terrestrial and marine ecosystems.” After the collision, about 400 million tons of dust escape into the Earth’s stratosphere; this leads to “disruptions in climate, atmospheric chemistry, and global photosynthesis.”

The simulation gives off a 4°C drop in the global mean temperature and a 15% drop in global precipitation. As for the productivity of both terrestrial and marine organisms, the stimulation gave a 36% and 25% decline respectively.

The effects of drastic temperature change will not only affect the condition of life but also the productivity of the soil, hence driving “massive disruptions in global food security.” So while the collision of this 500-meter asteroid might not be the end of Earth, its after-effects will bring serious changes to our home planet.

Some Hope For The Earth Following The Asteroid Bennu Collision

While the effects of this collision as shown by the stimulation are very scary, there is some hope for Earth. Following the collision of Asteroid Bennu on Earth in the stimulation, algae living in water bodies rapidly bounced back within months.

The rapid bounce back of algae after the collision is a result of the iron dust from the asteroid ejected after impact. With the abundance of algae, zooplankton will be able to thrive hence giving a glimpse of hope to other marine life.

As a result of this, the “reduction in terrestrial productivity” might be offset by the boost in marine productivity. Humans as well as other terrestrial life can then rely on the thriving marine life for sustenance following the asteroid collision.