The NASA leader warns that a major asteroid could crash on Earth in our life

NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, believes that the prospect of a killer asteroid colliding with the Earth is not reserved for sci-fi movies.

Bridenstine explained why the United States should strengthen its meteor defense Monday at the 2019 Global Defense Conference in Washington, DC.

This happens while NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other parties will conduct a defense exercise at the conference that simulates what it would be like if an asteroid was heading straight for Earth.

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NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, explained why the US should strengthen its meteor defense at the 2019 Global Defense Conference in Washington, DC.

"We need to make sure people understand that it's not about Hollywood or movies," Bridenstine said at the conference.

"It is ultimately about protecting the only planet we currently know to harbor life and which is the planet Earth."

He cited the Chelyabinsk event as proof of the increasing gravity and potential of these events.

The meteor, which swept over the Southern Ural Mountain Range in February 2013, was the largest meteor striking recorded for over a century after the Tunguska event in 1908.

The shock wave caused by the explosion injured more than 1,600 people, estimated at a power equivalent to 20 atomic bombs from Hiroshima.

While this kind of event would happen once every 60 years, Bridenstine said that they had occurred three times in the last 100 years.

Bridenstine's comments come as NASA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other parties hold a defense exercise at the conference, which will simulate what an asteroid would look like heading straight for Earth.

By this line of thinking, it means that another event of the magnitude of the Chelyabinsk event could occur in our lifetime.

"I would like to be able to tell you that these events are exceptionally unique," said Bridenstine. "But they are not."

Bridenstine said planetary defense was just as critical as NASA's other goals, like landing humans on the moon.

He added that NASA is striving to detect and track 90% of neighboring asteroids measuring 459 feet or more, which can cause fatal damage on impact.

NASA's efforts to defend the Earth against asteroids include the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which is due to take off in June 2021 and includes SpaceX's Elon Musk.

This revolutionary mission will be the first proven attempt to hijack an asteroid by intentionally striking an object at high speed.

After taking off from Vandenberg Air Force base in California on top of a Falcon 9 rocket in 2021, the DART spacecraft is expected to reach the Didymos object in October 2022, at 11.8 km from the Earth.

The DART mission builds on what is known as a "kinetic impactor" – in this case, a 2.4m long craft with solar electric propulsion.

DART will target Didymos, the near-Earth binary asteroid, which measures approximately 2,600 feet (800 m) in diameter.