Royal Institution Public Talk - The world's first planetary defence test

Asteroids colliding with the planet aren’t just something that the dinosaurs had to deal with. Astronomers think that there are approximately 25,000 “city killer” asteroids in near-Earth orbit – and most are yet to be found. Small enough to evade detection, they are capable of large-scale destruction and represent our greatest cosmic threat. Join volcanologist and science writer Robin George Andrews as he reveals how an international team of scientists and engineers are working to protect Earth by literally rearranging the night sky, using NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).