Science /

Copied

Chicken Little may have been smarter than we thought. A growing body of evidence reveals that the sky is falling, or at least gigantic space rocks are—and the Earth is at far greater risk of a catastrophic strike than previously thought, reports Atlantic. Despite the danger—an impact could make a nuclear bomb look like a firecracker—NASA is expending little effort to protect the planet.

“What is in the best interest of the country is never even mentioned in current NASA planning,” said a former Apollo astronaut. “Are we going to let a space strike kill millions of people before we get serious about this?” A generation ago, conventional wisdom put the chances of a major strike at 1 in a million—today, a leading asteroid specialist says it's closer to 1 in 10 each century. (Read more astronomy stories.)