I'm not going to worry about this: Bennu is officially classified as a potentially dangerous asteroid. In fact, there's an 0.037 percent (or 1-in-2,700) chance that it will strike Earth in the last quarter of the 22nd century, NASA scientists have calculated.

It's amazing what we know about this asteroid. Even more amazing is we will send a spacecraft there to bring back to Earth a sample of the asteroid, 2.1 ounces (60 grams). This will be used to help scientists understand how life got a foothold on Earth four billion years ago.

The mission team is chiefly interested in learning the role that asteroids like Bennu — dark, primitive and apparently carbon-rich objects — may have played in helping life get a foothold on Earth, Lauretta said.

"Did these kinds of bodies deliver organic material and water, in the form of hydrated minerals like clays, to the surface of our planet that created the habitability and the environments that may have led to the origin of life?" Lauretta said.

"That's the prime mission," to investigate that question, he added.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Lots of interesting stuff at Space.com - Asteroid Bennu Won't Destroy Earth and Wikipedia - Bennu.