Asteroid impact warning to the world

Experts are calling on the world to recognise the "global threat" of an asteroid hit to earth.

Scientists and astronauts have been holding a three-day workshop in Germany, discussing how countries would react.

Rusty Schweickart is a former Apollo 9 astronaut and now head of the European Sapce Agency's committee on near-earth objects (NEOs): " What we need to do is bring the world together, recognise that this is a global threat. This is not Germany or the United States or ESA or anybody else. This is a global threat."

The conference in the city of Darmstadt is considering theoretical but plausible scenarios of an asteroid impact on our planet.

"The question often arises in the general public: Can we in fact do something about this. And the answer is yes. We don't even have to develop new technologies. Our existing space technology enables us to actually slightly change the orbit of an asteroid that we see headed an impact 15 or 20 or 50 years ahead of us."

The workshop's finding will later be merged with findings of other experts to create a final report to the UN committee. The report will recommend how to react to an impact threat.