NASA warns Earth cannot defend itself against 15,000 'city-killer' asteroids

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has issued a chilling warning about the 15,000 “city killer asteroids” that could strike Earth at any moment.

NASA said that Earth cannot defend itself against the medium-sized rocks, about 140 meters in diameter, that come within striking distance.

Acting planetary defence officer for NASA at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in Phoenix, Kelly Fast, said, “If any of these ‘city-killer’ asteroids hits a populated place on Earth, it can cause regional damage.”

The large asteroids which are capable of doing global damage are often monitored using NASA’s specialised telescopes; however, the space agency does not possess the tools to track the mid-sized rocks.

Fast said, “It takes time to find them, even with the best telescopes.”

The serious warning comes after comet 3I/ATLAS kept astronauts on edge through 2025.

Last year, an asteroid named YR4 put the American space agency on alert after it was discovered that it can potentially crash into Earth. It was about the size of a football pitch; however, it moved away but the orbit of YR4 suggests that it can pass through the Moon and Earth system in 2032.

A dart mission chief at Johns Hopkins University, Nancy Chabot has warned that the world is not making enough investments to get prepared for such asteroid-crashing danger.