Artist’s concept of a catastrophic asteroid impact with the early Earth. An impact with a 500 kilometre diameter asteroid would effectively sterilize the planet. The Earth may have experienced such gigantic impacts in its youth, but fortunately today there are no projectiles this large to threaten our planet (Image: Don Davis, NASA)
AN ASTEROID that had initially been deemed harmless has turned out to have a slim chance of hitting Earth in 160 years. While that might seem a distant threat, there’s far less time available to deflect it off course.
was discovered a decade ago,…
