NASA forms apocalypse task force amid fears of asteroids wiping out Earth

The Washington-based task force is expected to work with disaster relief agencies to detect near-Earth objects, also known as NEOs.

NASA has discovered more than 13,500 NEOs since 1998 – with around 90% of them bigger than 1 kilometre.

NASA spokeswoman Dr Kelly Fast said: "NEOs hit the Earth every day.

"Asteroid and comet fragments – mostly the size of grains of sand – bombard the Earth at the rate of more than 100 tons a day."

And she warned the larger NEOs cause "widespread damage in and around their impact sites".

Another NASA official, John Grunsfeld, claimed there at "no known impact threats" at this time.

But he admitted "we need to remain vigilant and keep our eyes to the sky" after the recent Halloween Asteroid.

The asteroid – dubbed 2015 TB145 – narrowly missed Earth on October 31 as Brits went trick-or-treating.

And in February 2013 thousands were injured when a meteor exploded with the force of 20 atomic bombs in Russia.

The explosion sparked widespread panic in the city of Chelyabinsk and damaged around 3,000 buildings.

A stunned eyewitness said: "We saw a big burst of light, then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud, thundering sound.”

(dailystar.co.uk)