Technology will save us from fate of dinosaurs

Published on 24/11/2005 01:29

HUMANITY has avoided the fate of the dinosaurs by developing technology that can deflect massive asteroids on a collision course with Earth.

European scientists gathered at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London yesterday to discuss potential dangers and take stock of the measures being developed to deal with them.

Richard Tremayne-Smith, head of space environment at the British National Space Agency, told The Scotsman that the US Space Guard project will have identified almost all the most dangerous "Near Earth Objects" (NEOs), by 2008 and scientists had already demonstrated they were able to alter their course.

Mr Tremayne-Smith said humans should avoid extinction as a result of a massive asteroid hitting the Earth, thought to be the reason why the dinosaurs died out.

"That's the plan. There would be time if an NEO was found to 'come through the keyhole' [towards Earth] to send a mission," he said. "We know we can do it."

Earlier this year NASA's Deep Impact probe collided with a comet and successfully changed its direction.