The risk is growing that Earth will be hit by an asteroid from a meteor stream known as the Taurids, Czech astronomers said on Tuesday.
The astronomers, from the Czech Academy of Sciences, drew their conclusion after analysing 144 bolides — large meteors that explode in the atmosphere — from the Taurids and detecting a new branch with at least two asteroids measuring 200-300 metres (220-330 yards) in diameter.
“Most probably, the branch also includes many undetected asteroids which are dozens of metres in diameter or larger,” the Czech academy said in a press release.
“Hence, the danger of a crash with an asteroid grows markedly once every few years that the Earth encounters this stream of inter-planetary material.”
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