Do Look Up: How Earth Can Defend Itself Against Asteroid

In 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) deliberately smashed a spacecraft into the 160-metre-wide Dimorphos asteroid, successfully altering its orbit around a larger space rock (Credit: AFP)

There is a very small chance that an asteroid capable of taking out an entire city could strike Earth in less than eight years. But even if this asteroid is hurtling our way, humanity is now able to defend itself against such a threat, experts say.

The odds that the recently discovered asteroid will hit Earth on December 22, 2032 have now risen to 3.1 percent, NASA said on Tuesday, the highest probability for an impact by such a large space rock in modern forecasting.