The Earth is poorly prepared for an asteroid strike.
Earth is not prepared for an asteroid strike
A worrying new report published by NASA and the US government has revealed that the human race would be unlikely to respond to the danger of a meteorite even if warned 14 years in advance.
The document states that asteroid disaster management plans are "not defined" while there is also "limited readiness" to set up space missions that could reduce the danger of a meteorite.
As part of the report, experts had to consider both national and global responses in the hypothetical scenario in which a previously-unknown asteroid had a 72 per cent chance of hitting Earth 14 years from now.
The exercise revealed that "decision-making processes and risk tolerance" are poorly understood amongst officials.
The report said: "The process for making decisions about space missions in asteroid threat scenario remains unclear.
"The process has not been adequately defined in the US or internationally."