Asteroid Bennu: Flat Earth Society Claims NASA’s Impact Calculations to be Pure Scaremongering

Lately, news about an asteroid called Bennu received a great deal of attention: In 2135 the astronomical object will get close to earth and possibly change its orbit so that Bennu might collide with earth between 2175 and 2196. NASA scientists calculated the impact probability to be 1:2700. This rate is highly doubted by the president of the Flat Earth Society (FES), Daniel Shenton, who considers the NASA calculations to be complete nonsense and warns against producing panic and hysteria!

On Facebook, Daniel Shanton blames the NASA experts to be ‘geometry analphabets’: “Every child knows that the surface area of a sphere is four times the area of a disk! It’s really embarassing that the so called experts of the American space program mix up such simple things! Naturally, they end up with a completely inaccurate likelihood of Bennu colliding with earth.”

The FES doesn’t deny the existence of Bennu at all. However, the probability of the asteroid’s impact on earth at the end of the next century according to calculations by the society is so low that bothering is simply a waste of time. Shenton: “What we do not need is irresponsible misinformation and scare tactics. Apparently, these intimidating numbers by NASA are simply designed to raise additional funds for the stagnating space program!”

On the society’s Facebook page the probability of Bennu’s impact on earth is stated rather to be 1:10800 (0.000092593). However, amongst FES members this rate is somewhat controversial: A few experts of the organisation would like to bring into consideration the fact that Bennu could hit the flat earth from above and below, a possibility that is missing in the society’s official calculations. Apart from these minor disagreements, the flat earth supporters agree on the NASA’s abstruse rate having no pseudoscientific basis whatsoever. Shenton: “It would be funny if it were not so depressing!”