Can a dangerous asteroid strike Earth and destroy humanity? Know here

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Can asteroids be dangerous for Earth? Tens of millions of years ago, a single asteroid collided with the planet, which is said to be the reason behind the extinction of dinosaurs. Though the collision was destructive, our planet survived! Does this mean that Earth cannot be destroyed by an asteroid even though living things on it may go extinct? That cannot be said! Due to the gravitational pull, Earth tends to attract certain objects like asteroids and meteors towards it leading to crashes. However, there is no potential harm caused by these objects until and unless they are large such as the asteroid that killed off all the dinosaurs. So, can a dangerous asteroid strike Earth and destroy it?

According to NASA, the asteroids capable of causing a global disaster if they hit the Earth are extremely rare. They probably would need to be about a kilometer or more in diameter. Such bodies impact the Earth only once every 100,000 years on average. Other objects of a similar size, such as comets, impact even less frequently, perhaps once every 500,000 years or so.

Last week, NASA tested if it could protect Earth from the harmful impact of collision with asteroids via the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. It can be known that DART is the world's first planetary defense test mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid's direction in space through impact of a spacecraft against it.

Staying alert and prepared is important as any large enough asteroid strike can have the capacity to destroy Earth in unfathomable ways and may even lead to extinction of humans. According to NASA, no known asteroid poses a significant risk of impact with Earth over the next