Earth may not be facing obliteration by a Texas-sized asteroid, as it was in the 1998 flick "Armageddon" -- not yet anyway. But NASA scientists say the threat of a major asteroid strike on our planet isn't just science fiction.
Just how much damage would an asteroid strike do? And could we stop an asteroid? Famed science educator Bill Nye took on that question in a new YouTube video from AsapSCIENCE -- check it out above.
"Asteroid impacts are serious business," Nye says in the video. "If the asteroid starts to get bigger, starts to get in the 25 meters and the 45 meters in diameter, then you get Meteor Crater Arizona. Huge thing... And then when they get to be about 100 meters, 140 meters, now you're into a country killer. And then when you get bigger than that, it's a continent killer. Much bigger than that and you're taking out whole races of ancient species."
How might we avert an asteroid disaster? Nye says we should launch an asteroid-hunting spacecraft, adding that we might be able to take out any dangerous asteroids with space-based, solar-powered lasers.
Nye is no stranger to this topic. In February, he told CNN, "It's something that we humans all over the world ought to get involved in, this asteroid-hunting. We're the first generation of people that could do something about it. It's exciting science, but it also, I hope, gives everybody a little pause for thought."
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