The European Space Agency may team up with NASA to launch a mission in 2020 against a dangerous asteroid heading for Earth.
Planetary scientists and experts have published an open letter urging support for the mission.
Space agencies plan to smash the probe on the 160 mth asteroid and knock it off course.
According to the Daily Star, the problem became relevant after the incident in Chelyabinsk, when a 20-meter meteorite exploded over Russia in 2013.
The impact was severe, injuring 1,200 people, damaging thousands of buildings, and many bystanders felt intense heat.
Scientists fear that a larger asteroid, like the one they want to knock off course, has the potential to destroy an entire city.
Alan Harris of the German Aerospace Center, who signed the letter, said that humanity should know more about near-Earth objects.
“We know the approximate number of objects and their sizes, but we know almost nothing about their properties.
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“We need to know a lot more to prepare for an asteroid deflection operation,” he told Space.com.
A letter from scientists warns that there are currently over 1,700 dangerous asteroids near Earth.
The one that will be the target of the mission is the smaller of the Didymos group asteroids, which will pass close to Earth in 2022.
According to the plan, the ESA spacecraft will measure the shape of the asteroid, study its surface, subsurface layer and internal structure.
At the same time, NASA's DART probe will also approach the space body and strike directly into the surface.
In early December, the bosses of the European Space Agency will meet in Lucerne, Switzerland to decide whether the mission is worth funding.
