NASA asteroid SHOCK: Plan ‘to SAVE Earth’ from 500m space rock REVEALED 

YouTube channel Mr Scientific revealed the space agency is currently running a mission with its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to find out more about the rock.

The spacecraft spent two years chasing Bennu down, before orbiting it for another two years and will begin taking samples in 2019. 

Then, in 2023, it will blast back to Earth to allow scientists from around the world to study it.

The mission team is particularly interested in learning the role that asteroids like Bennu — dark, primitive and apparently carbon-rich — may have played in creating life on Earth, NASA’s Principle investigator Dante Lauretta revealed.