Typically when asteroids enter Earth’s atmosphere they burn up before they ever reach the planet’s surface.
When they do collide, however, they pack a punch.
The Chelyabinsk meteor burnt up over Russia in 2013, travelling at around 60,000 kph, and injuring around 1,500 people.
It was only about 20 metres wide.
But the question remains: what would happen if a bigger one hit Earth and how do we stop them?
While it may sound like the plotline to the Hollywood film Armageddon, the mission to save Earth from a space rock is now a reality.
At the fifth annual Planetary Defense Conference, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstone announced the space agency’s latest program, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).
The purpose of the US scientists involved is simple: to knock an asteroid off course.
The target: a potentially hazardous ‘binary asteroid’ at least 10 million kilometres away.
It’s made up of two parts: Didymos A, and Didymos B.
The theory is that if you hit B, you can throw A off course.
It will launch in June 2021, take a year to hit.. or miss.
The cost? $400 million. A bargain to potentially save our planet.
Unlike the Russian meteor, Didymos A is roughly 800 metres wide.
It’s big enough that a collision could mean potentially millions of casualties and many millions of dollars worth of damage.
Threats like Didymos A mean that it’s not enough just to explore space, but that sometimes we need to defends ourselves from it too.
NASA unveils new space mission to save Earth from asteroid collision - 7NEWS
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