Washington, June 24:

Heres your chance to save the planet!

NASA has called on amateur astronomers and other citizen-scientists to help identify the smaller and potentially destructive asteroids lurking in the cosmos, which could wipe out a city upon impact with Earth.

Scientists estimate that about 90 per cent of asteroids that are one kilometre or larger which pose potential planet-wide danger have been surveyed.

However, more than 99 per cent of asteroids that are 30 to 40 meters in size-which might not destroy the planet, but could very easily wipe out a city have yet to be found and tracked, the National Geographic reported.

NASA has asked for the publics help to find these dangerous asteroids and figure out what can be done to stop any threats they pose.

The announcement coincides with the agencys plans for a new mission to capture an asteroid, redirect it to lunar orbit, and then send humans to study it, said Brian Muirhead, NASAs chief engineer and the leader of the Asteroid Redirect Mission study team.

What we need to do is increase the frequency of identification of asteroids such that we can also track them and characterise them, said Muirhead.

That will give us a choice (to see) which (asteroid) we want to grab hold of and bring back to the Earth-moon system, said Muirhead.

NASAs announcement this week comes four months after an 18-meter-long asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February.

More here:

NASA calls on amateur astronomers to track ‘dangerous’ asteroids