Clever clogs over at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered the “key for planetary defence” by finding a way to defend Earth from potentially killer asteroids
Space boffins have found a way to defend Earth from would-be killer asteroids.
Astronomers are celebrating discovering the “key for planetary defence” after making a breakthrough in tracking the monster rocks heading our way.
The technique was uncovered by eggheads who were studying far smaller bits that were floating in space.
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Brainboxes at Massachusetts Institute of Technology can now pinpoint teeny asteroids as small as 10m across which are hanging around the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
That is where millions of the small space rocks orbit.
Until now, scientists could only pick up huge rocks with a 1km diameter.
Despite their size, the smaller asteroids are powerful and can send shock waves across entire regions.
The researchers fear some of the new rocks could blast through the belt and zoom towards Earth and one is likely to be a trojan.
A trojan is a small celestial body that orbits a larger body, such as a planet or moon, in a stable orbit.
“We have been able to detect near-Earth objects down to 10 meters in size when they are really close to Earth,” said MIT boff Artem Burdanov.
The scientist, of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, added: “We now have a way of spotting these small asteroids when they are much farther away, so we can do more precise orbital tracking, which is key for planetary defence.”
Co-author Julien de Wit said: “We thought we would just detect a few new objects, but we detected so many more than expected.”
The most serious asteroid accident of modern times was the Chelyabinsk meteor.
It injured 1,500 people after disintegrating in the sky over the southern Ural region of Russia in 2013. The shock wave caused £11m of damage, smashing 3,600 windows.
Meanwhile the 1908 Tunguska blast in Siberia killed several people and caused carnage over an area spanning 800 square miles.
The asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs was around 10km wide.
Rocks that size are predicted to only strike Earth once every 100m to 500m years.