Asteroid collision risk raised as Taurids near

The risk is growing that Earth will be hit by an asteroid from a meteor stream known as the Taurids, Czech astronomers report. A team, from the Czech Academy of Sciences, reached their conclusion after they analysed 144 bolides – large meteors that explode in the atmosphere – from the Taurids and detected a new branch with at least two asteroids measuring up to 300 metres across.

“The danger of a crash with an asteroid grows markedly every few years when the Earth encounters this stream of material,” the academy said.