Earth Ill-Prepared Against Asteroid Or Comet 'Attack', Says Nasa Scientist

The human race is ill-prepared to defend itself in case an asteroid or comet makes a surprise 'attack' on earth, a scientist from NASA has warned on Monday (December 12), according to reports.

Speaking at the annual American Geophysical Union, Dr. Joseph Nuth, a researcher with the space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center, said not much can be done if such a thing eventually happens at the moment.

He said asteroids that are potentially dangerous are extremely rare but at the same time, they can cause extinction on earth, just like those that had wiped out the dinosaurs. "...they're 50 to 60 million years apart, essentially. You could say, of course, we're due, but it's a random course at that point," Nuth said, according to a Guardian report.

NASA has recently set up an office for planetary defense and Nuth has recommended that the agency make an interceptor rocket and keep it waiting along with an observer craft. He said a rocket could diminish the possibility of an asteroid rushing in from somewhere which is difficult for observation, like from the sun.

However, the two craft are to find a place in the Nasa's official plan and neither is the agency is formally requesting them from the Congress, Nuth said, according to an article in Atlantic. The researcher said getting the Congress's approval would be the biggest challenge for the mission.

On the occasion, Nuth was accompanied by three scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory who also study planetary defense. Among them, Dr. Cathy Plesko said humans could use either of two options to deflect an asteroid. They could do so either with the help of a nuclear warhead of a "kinetic impactor".

Dr Cathy Plesko, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said there were two ways humans might deflect an asteroid: a nuclear warhead or a "kinetic impactor, which is basically a giant cannonball".

Galen Gisler, another scientist was of the opinion that an asteroid or comet that escaped an attempt to deflect it is likely to hit the water, which is the dominant part of the earth's surface. He said an asteroid with a diameter smaller than 500 feet would cause massive splash but not a tsunami threatening the human life.