What Would Happen If Asteroid Bennu Hit Earth?

After OSIRIS REx grabbed a sample a coupe of weeks ago many people remarked on how the asteroid just seemed to disintegrate when sampled. Some commenters took this fragility as a sign the asteroids would just disintegrate in the atmosphere before it hit the surface of earth.

Unfortunately that's not the case, Bennu is so large that it would still hit the surface, albeit in fragments and still cause massive amounts of damage.

[monostripeexplosiveexplora]

I just realized that we have started asteroid mining... now it is only a small step towards a pirate base in one!

[theCodyReeder]

Crazy idea but is there any possibility of changing the asteroids trajectory so that it gets a gravity assist off earth that sends it into another planet? This would remove possibility of future impact and we could study/use the impact somewhere else.

[Scotracer]

Hi Scott. I'm another Scott, from Scotland and I studied Aerospace engineering :)

[ArifRWinandar]

"So without even trying, we have actually changed things." Pretty much sums up the history of humanity on Earth.

[Marci]

"One ton of solid iron has the same kinetic energy as one ton of loose gravel"
"Ah dohn get eht."

[Cannon]

Mass is mass. When talking about the different types of asteroids hitting Earth a teacher once told us to imagine a shotgun slug vs bird shot.

[kevondaye]

Its 2020. DO. NOT. TEMPT. THE. MAGIC. BOULDER!

[josefkrakel]

7:25 Thanks for blowing up Rockville MD. The traffic there is terrible anyways.

[Aengus]

It's the old school kid maths question, "What weighs more, a tonne of iron or a tonne of feathers?"

[KpxUrz]

It's just incredible to be able to witness a body like Bennu up close and in detail. Very educational.

[dreadfullink]

If that hit Buenos Aires i can see the Mobile infantry being deployed to Klendathu

[Ryan]

Unrelated to the actual content of the video... 8:08 is such a beautiful way to display inclination

[TheAlphaecho]

*Humans see an asteroid*
“You know... I really wanna poke it with a stick.”

[dreyna]

Given the "rubble pile" composition, how would tidal disruption during approach to Earth impact affect the spread of the overall mass as it entered the atmosphere? I would expect that in the last minutes the breakup would make it more difficult to reach the ground. Of course, this would all depend on things like approach angle and overall relative velocity.

[TheZoltan-]

There is also the chance that the first close encounter is not an impact, but close enough to pull Bennu apart into a string of smaller asteroid balls, "spreading" it into a long chain of less dangerous but higher chance impact objects.

[username-gfsf]

Hey Scott, don't you think it's interesting that asteroids always seem to hit craters when they collide with earth? Maybe you could do a video about it?

[julese]

*"un kg de plume vs un kg de plomb" INTENSIFIES*

[Marinealver]

A most fitting end for the year of 2020

[why_though]

When I close my eyes I can still hear this guy saying AIR-th

[MushVPeets]

inb4 we accidentally gravity-tractored it into ourselves while OSIRIS-REX was keeping itself parked above the asteroid waiting to take a sample