White House published a document to save earth from asteroid impact

Abigail Beall For Mailonline 6 January 2017

It is one of the most popular fictional doomsday situations, featured in films like Armageddon and Deep Impact, but the danger of an asteroid destroying life on our planet is a reality.

For years scientists have been trying to work out how to deal with the threat of an asteroid, which could hit us with little or no warning.

Now the White House has released an official document describing the plan if a meteor or asteroid was to head our way, and it shows we are under-prepared.

The White House published its 'National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy'.

The document 'seeks to improve our nation's preparedness to address the hazard of near-Earth object (NEO) impacts by enhancing the integration of existing national and international assets and adding important capabilities that are currently lacking.'

NEOs are asteroids or comets that have an orbit that brings them near or into Earth's orbit.

If one of these was to zoom towards Earth in the future, it would not be the first time.

A 56 foot (17-metre) meteor that struck Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, injured more than 1,000 people came with no warning.

This is why one of the strategies outlined in the document is to improve on Nasa's methods of detecting NEOs before it is too late.

In seven main goals described in the document, the White House also focuses on improving modelling and predicting where NEOs will travel.

The country also plans to improve it emergency alert systems and invest in hi-tech space probes that could annihilate threats.      Dailymail