Close call signals Earth needs an asteroid shield

LONDON: Extensive monitoring systems and an Armageddon-style protocol is needed to save the Earth from a potentially hazardous asteroid, expected to fly by our planet in 2029, experts say. Actor Bruce Willis and his co-stars are given just 18 days to destroy a vast asteroid which threatens to wipe out life on Earth in the Hollywood movie "Armageddon" .

Scientists say the world must come up with a similar emergency plan after an asteroid whistled within a whisker of the Earth on Tuesday, only two days after it was first detected by astronomers , 'The Telegraph' reported. The Apophis asteroid , first detected in 2004, will come within 36,000 kilometres of Earth when it passes by and it can be seen with the naked eye as a burning point in the sky.

Scientists said although there is no chance of the asteroid colliding with Earth, there is an extremely small chance it could fall into a gravitational loop and come back to hit the planet in 2038.

The asteroid which passed by this week, known as 2012 XE54 measured just 36 metre across, but the last known asteroid of such a size to hit Earth wiped out an area of Russian forest the size of London in 1908.

Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the possible impact of asteroids measuring less than 1km across, which are not typically picked up by surveying programmes and could only be detected at very short notice.

Delegates from across the world will gather at the UN in February to come up with a framework for earlier detection of asteroids, and a plan of action if a collision is deemed possible.

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