Ten times more than a nuclear bomb, NASA's chief scientist believes that the risk of an asteroid hitting Earth is higher than previously expected.

CTOnews.com, March 22 (Xinhua)-- James Garvin, chief scientist of NASA, pointed out in a new paper that the risk of an asteroid hitting Earth is higher than previously expected.

A team led by Gavin re-examined asteroid impacts over the past millions of years, re-investigated three craters and modeled the impact area to be larger than previously expected.

As an example in the attached report by CTOnews.com, the impact area of the Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan was previously estimated at 13 km (black circle), while the latest data show that the impact area reached 30 km (red circle). The diameter of Pantasma crater in Nicaragua has increased from 14.8km to 35.2km.

Garvin believes that these impact rings could mean that the crater is dozens of kilometers wide and that the impact is significantly more violent than previously expected. If the new data are correct, the impact of the asteroid is 10 times as destructive as the largest nuclear bomb in human history. The impact of this nature has the potential to blow part of the Earth's atmosphere into space, leading to the extinction of local species.

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