Scientists in plea for cash to repel asteroid.

Scientists in plea for cash to repel asteroid.

Scientists have urged governments to fund a mission to find out if an asteroid could be nudged off its trajectory to avoid a collision with Earth.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has teamed up with Nasa for the first planetary defence operation, which aims to study the effect of crashing into a small rock dubbed "Didymoon" orbiting an asteroid called Didymos A.
The Aida mission (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment) is made up of Nasa's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) spacecraft, which will smash into the little satellite, and the ESA's Hera craft which will study the impact.
But it needs the agreement of ministers meeting in Seville later this month to decide on future funding projects.