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Asteroid threat to Earth will 'need a lot of nukes' in Armageddon movie style assault

To avert a humanity-ending smash with an Asteroid, earthlings will need to come together and join forces to divert any giant space rocks hurtling towards our one and only home

[Asteroid 2024 YR4 could hit us in 2032]

Asteroid 2024 YR4 could hit us in 2032(Image: Getty Images)

Boffins reckon mounting an Armageddon movie-style nuclear assault on asteroids is the only way well stop one ploughing into Earth. Asteroid 2024 YR4 being monitored by hundreds of astronomers telescopes is hurtling through the Milky Way at an astonishing speed of 17 kilometres per second, equivalent to 38,028 miles per hour.

Experts reckon there is anything between a 0.28% and 3.1% chance of it hurtling into Earth in 2032. And now boffins say if a giant space rock was heading direct for a city on this planet we are going to need a lot of nukes to divert it.

Dr Andrew Rivkin, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, America, said about the prospect of an asteroid larger than 2024 YR4 hitting Earth: I dont want to say humanity would throw in the towel, but youre going to need a lot of nukes.

[The plot of Armageddon could become a reality]

The plot of Armageddon could become a reality(Image: Touchstone)

The space boff is part of a global effort to log, track and if necessary divert incoming asteroids.

He was investigation leader on NASAs double asteroid redirection test mission, named Dart.

It fired a spaceship into the cosmos to slam into an asteroid three times the width of YR4 and 11 million kilometres away from Earth.

At a closing speed of 6km per second, it slammed into the space rock Dimorphos, obliterating the spacecraft and slowing down the asteroid.

[A giant space rock could obliterate humanity]

A giant space rock could obliterate humanity(Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)

There are also plans in place to slam bombs into space rocks headed for Earth.

They echo those seen in 1998 action flick Armageddon starring Bruce Willis.

He played the head of a mob of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to destroy a gigantic Texas-sized asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

Meanwhile Dr Rivkin said an asteroid the size of the 10km-wide one that made the dinosaurs extinct when it struck our planet would take all of the worlds nuclear arsenal fired at it to stop it hitting us.

He said: I think we would have to give it a shot even the pessimists would go down fighting.

[Boffins say nukes could divert a space rock]

Boffins say nukes could divert a space rock(Image: Getty Images)

Boffs are also working on using thrusters to shift an incoming asteroid off course.

Aerospace engineer Brent Barbee from the University of Maryland says they could repeatedly fire blasts at spacerocks to stop them ploughing into our planet or use a spacecraft to hit it and send it off course.

He said: The hope is that we could rally and get things together.

But it would be our first time doing it, so if we were confronted with that, wed have to innovate new ways to get the spacecraft built and ready to launch much faster than usual.

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