While the possibility of a catastrophic asteroid slamming into Earth is extremely rare, it may only be a matter of time before this threat becomes a reality. But experts have warned that humans are not prepared for an asteroid impact, and should one head for Earth, there’s not much we can do about it. A Nasa scientist has said that our best hope is building an interceptor rocket to keep in storage that could be used in deflection missions.

Dr Joseph Nuth, a researcher at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union earlier this week. He said: ‘The biggest problem, basically, is there’s not a hell of a lot we can do about it at the moment.’ While dangerous asteroids and comets rarely hit Earth, Dr Nuth warned that the threat was always there. READ MORE

 


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