Space rocks are one of humanity’s major existential threats, and while the likes of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are constantly monitoring the skies for near-Earth objects (NEO) the danger will always remain. NASA has said that it has discovered, and was monitoring, 8,000 near-Earth asteroids which are at least 140 metres wide – which would be big enough to wipe out a small country. But the space agency believes there may be 25,000 of these within Earth’s ‘district’.
This means that more than two-thirds are yet to be found, and experts believe it is only a matter of time before an asteroid comes crashing into Earth.
Greg Leonard, a senior research specialist at the Catalina Sky Survey – a NASA funded project supported by the Near Earth Object Observation Program (NEOO) under the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) – says there is a “100 percent” chance an asteroid will hit Earth.
Mr Leonard spoke to journalist Bryan Walsh for the latter’s new book End Times, which looks at the existential threats which humanity faces: “I know that the chances of me dying in an asteroid impact is less than dying from a lightning strike.
“But I also know that if we do nothing, sooner or later, there’s a one hundred percent chance that one will get us.
“So I feel privileged to be doing something.”
However, Mr Walsh went on to say that “intelligence-gathering alone won’t keep Earth safe.”
Mr Walsh continued: “As Leonard said, given enough time, a large Near Earth Object will end up on a collision course with our planet.
“It’s happened before and it will happen again.”
While the chances of a major asteroid hitting Earth are small – NASA believes there is a one in 300,000 chance every year that a space rock which could cause regional damage will hit – the devastating prospect is not impossible.
READ MORE: Asteroid warning: NASA warns of ‘threatening’ asteroid
The mission will give vital information on how to deflect asteroids from their collision course with Earth.
But NASA reiterates that while there is a small chance Earth could be impacted, “over millions of years, of all of the planets, Bennu is most likely to hit Venus.”
The ESA has invested £21million in projects such as the Human Exploration Research Analog (Hera) mission, which will study the Didymos binary asteroid, set to fly past Earth in 2022.
Studies such as Hera will help the ESA better understand how it can protect our planet from killer asteroid strikes.