Earth could be three times more likely to be hit by an asteroid than previously thought following analysis of new data from NASA scientists. The Mirror reports that was the stark warning from James Garvin, chief scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center, after his team analysed data from several Earth-observing satellites used to examine four impact craters and identify larger rings around the sites.
Garvin and his team now believe that four asteroids strong enough to blow off part of the Earth's atmosphere have hit in the past one million years. It has been predicted that asteroids or comets at least one kilometre in size only hit once every 600,000 to 700,000 years, but this would show that at least four have hit in a relatively similar timeframe.
As a result, Garvin has admitted they may have misread their initial findings and impacts could have lead to mass extinction due to the explosion which was up to 10 times more powerful than the largest nuclear bomb in history.
