Asteroid will DEFINITELY hit Earth and could wipe out London, expert warns

AN asteroid impact on Earth is “100 per cent” going to happen and experts are currently unsure they have the ability to protect us.

As every day passes, the likelihood that an asteroid strikes Earth increases, according to experts.

Professor Alan Fitzsimmons, from Queen’s University Belfast’s Astrophysics Research Centre, says one will “100 per cent” strike Earth again, and London could be completely wiped out.

The last major incident occurred in 2013 when a 20 metre meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, which smashed windows and caused injuries to more than 1,000 people.

Prior to that, in 1908, a small asteroid up to 190 metres in size exploded over Siberia’s Tunguska which ruined woodlands across 800 miles.

In both instances, experts had no idea they were coming.

The Tunguska meteor was so big it would wipe out London completely.

Prof Fitzsimmons added that experts have detected roughly 90 per cent of asteroids that could strike Earth, but that there could be millions which could seep through and wreak havoc on our planet.

However, he said that it is the smaller ones that we should be wary of.

Speaking ahead of Asteroid Day on June 30, he told Express.co.uk: “The dinosaur killer was so large and those guys are easy to spot half way across the solar system with the current generation of telescopes. 

“We know where those guys are, and we know they’re not coming anywhere near us in the near future.

“We shouldn’t think of going the way of the dinosaurs, that’s almost certainly not going to happen. 

“But we may well still be taken by surprise by one of these smaller impacts such as Chelyabinsk or even Tunguska so we have to be prepared for that eventuality.

“I think time is on our side, we have made such great strides in our scientific understanding and the technology that we have at our disposal.

“But it is a random game at the moment, there could be one hitting tomorrow, there could even be one hitting on Asteroid Day, which would be slightly ironic.”

Although there are ways to protect Earth from asteroids, such as asteroid deflection systems where they can use rockets to knock them off their course, Prof Fitzsimmons says that no where near enough is being done.

Even with the current protection methods, there is no way scientists can be entirely sure that they will be effective.

Prof Fitzsimmons continued: “We’ve never tried to move an asteroid and change its path around the sun. 

“And until we do that, there is a big question mark on our ability to protect people in the future.”

He added: “One way to regard asteroids is that they are another form of natural disaster, like earthquakes, like volcanoes.

“They have hit us in the past and they will hit us in the future – it’s a natural process.

“But amazingly, unlike with other disasters, we don’t put our minds and our wallets to us.”