It is a scene we all dread – an enormous space rock colliding with Earth, causing widespread chaos and destruction. And experts have warned that the dreaded scenario could become a reality this year. A leading astronomer from Nasa has tweeted a list of five known asteroids expected to fly scarily close to Earth within the coming year. It is a scene we all dread – an enormous space rock colliding with Earth, causing widespread chaos and destruction. And experts have warned that the dreaded scenario could become a reality this year (artist's impression) He said: 'A list of known asteroid close approaches to Earth - less than five Lunar Distance - within the coming year', along with a table detailing the five asteroids.

An asteroid as big as a bus came closer to Earth than the moon last night. The object, dubbed 2017 FJ101, zoomed passed within 202,000 miles (325,087 km) of our planet. But the near-Earth asteroid posed no threat to our planet or the moon, scientists said. An asteroid as big as a bus came closer to Earth than the moon last night. According to an asteroid-impact simulator called'Impact Earth!' by Purdue University, if a porous rock asteroid of 111 feet (34 meters) long hit Earth at a 45-degree angle, the simulator found, it would have exploded as an air burst.

An asteroid as big as a 10-story building has passed by Earth at a distance half that of the Moon, researchers have revealed. The asteroid, dubbed 2017 AG13, was only spotted only Saturday by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey. It is between 50 and 111 feet (15 to 34 meters) long, and when it passed by Earth, 2017 AG3 was moving at 9.9 miles per second (16 kilometers per second). Here, it is so close to Earth its text is almost unreadable. According to an asteroid-impact simulator called'Impact Earth!' by Purdue University, if a porous rock asteroid of 111 feet (34 meters) long hit Earth at a 45-degree angle, the simulator found, it would have exploded as an air burst.

A pair of Republican congressmen, both of whom sit on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, contacted NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday, requesting more information from the space administration about a recent report supporting the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). The ARM program aims to intercept a near-Earth asteroid, grab a boulder from its surface using a robotic spacecraft and then coax said boulder into a stable orbit around the moon where it can be studied at leisure by future manned missions. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the HCSST, and Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of of the HSST space subcommittee, made the request because they reportedly feel that the incoming administration should be "unencumbered" by decisions made by the current one -- like what they want to do with the ACA -- and has access to "honest assessments" of ARM's value rather than "farcical studies scoped to produce a predetermined outcome." Specifically, the pair questioned a November 16th report which proposed that performing this mission would close five "strategic knowledge gaps" (SKGs), or subjects that NASA has said it needs additional experience or technologies in before it can continue its space exploration plans. These SKGs include everything from how to limit a crew's radiation exposure during round trip missions, how many such missions a crew could complete before radiation exposure becomes an issue or how to even land on and collect materials from the orbiting boulder.

Nasa is planning an ambitious mission that will see a robotic spaceship visit an asteroid to create an orbiting base for astronauts. The robot shipwill pluck a large boulder off the space rock and sling it aroundthe moon, becoming a destination to prepare for futurehuman missions to Mars. Nasa also plans to study the asteroid and test deflection techniques that one day may be necessary to save Earth from a potentially catastrophic collision. Now the space agency has created a mock-up of its robot arm and tested it using a mock asteroid boulder. The robot ship will pluck a large boulder off an asteroid and sling it around the moon, becoming a destination to prepare for future human missions to Mars.

Earth is not prepared for the possibility of a cataclysmic asteroid collision, according to the White House's top science advisor. At a discussion on Wednesday at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center regarding the agency's 1.4 billion Asteroid Redirect Mission, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren warned that an impact could'do a lot of damage to the Earth.' The expert noted two catastrophic events in recent history that took the world by surprise – the Chelyabinsk strike in 2013, and the Tunguska fireball in 1908. While it may sound alarming, Holdren says we are'on a trajectory' toward mitigating the risks, as Nasa's radical mission has recently been given the green light to move forward, and could provide a platform for the testing of crucial deflection methods. At a discussion yesterday at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren warned that an asteroid impact could'do a lot of damage to the Earth.'

An ambitious mission that will visit a comet and pluck a boulder from its surface to create an orbiting base for astronauts has been given the final go-ahead. A robot shipwill pluck a large boulder off an asteroid and sling it aroundthe moon, becoming a destination to prepare for futurehuman missions to Mars, the U.S. space agency has revealed. The so-called Asteroid Redirect Mission is estimated to costabout 1.4 billion not including launch costs and is targetedfor liftoff in December 2021. In the Spacecraft Structures Lab at NASA's Langley Research Center, the Asteroid Redirect Mission robotic contact and restraint system is prototyped and tested. A robot ship will pluck a large boulder off an asteroid and drag it into orbit around the moon, becoming a'testbed' for future human missions to Mars, the U.S. space agency has revealed.