TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
The risks of a large
asteroid hitting Earth are small, but experts say the "doomsday" preparations
still need to be made.
Just weeks after a meteor
exploded over a rural part of Russia, the nation's top science officials are
telling Congress what they're doing to detect similar threats from space.
Lawmakers have ordered
NASA to track objects that are big enough to wipe out a city.
The U.S. Navy successfully
shot down an old spy satellite in 2008, before it could crash to Earth and
release toxic gas.
But blasting a large
asteroid is not in the cards.
Conjuring up images of the
film "Armageddon" NASA is pushing ahead with plans to land astronauts on an
asteroid by 2025 and improve early detection.
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