Is There a Big Astroid Coming Our Way?

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Asteroids of that size are expected to hit the earth every, you know, ten thousand years or so. Unlikely one's going to show up any time in the next few years. But on the time scale that we might want to do something about it, it could be any time. A lot of work obviously, went into this mission,. and we're going to be really glad for that if a big astroid is ever found to be heading our way.

This week, Nasa scientists smashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, more than 11m km from Earth. Most rocket scientists would wince at the thought, but the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, was purposefully designed to slam head-on into the asteroid Dimorphos. The aim is to nudge it off its current orbit, in an experiment that will assess the possibility of deflecting a killer space rock – if one was ever headed our way. Ian Sample speaks to Prof Colin Snodgrass about why they chose Dimorphos, what happens to the asteroid now, and whether there are other ways to prevent space-based planetary destruction. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod