A Handful of Asteroid Could Help Decipher Our Entire Existence

Many millions of miles from Earth, an asteroid and a spacecraft are traveling together. The asteroid, as wide as a skyscraper is tall, is ancient, almost as old as the solar system itself. The spacecraft, dispatched more recently, circles the asteroid like a tiny mechanical moon. Tonight, if everything goes as planned, the spacecraft will swoop toward the asteroid, touch its surface, and snatch some rocks before backing away again.

As NASA counts down the hours to this maneuver, a simple question comes to mind: Why? Asteroids have historically not been kind to Earth, as the truncated story of the dinosaurs can attest. No Hollywood scenario involving asteroids bodes well for us, either. This particular asteroid, known as Bennu, has a 1-in-2,700 chance of striking Earth in the