NASA has revealed plans to improve they way they detect ' doomsday' asteroids capable of wiping out the human race.
The upgraded software includes some key changes that should better prepare out planet when faced with potentially dangerous space rocks.
The technology - used by US space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) - is able to detect asteroids and other space matter at risk of hitting Earth.
The changes mean that NASA is upgrading its 20-year-old software with a new algorithm named Sentry-II.
The algorithm works by periodically scanning a table of potentially hazardous asteroids and their orbits.
These space rocks are known to NASA and monitored accordingly by calculating whether any pose a risk to Earth.
The new system will take into account something called the Yarkovsky effect which describes a small but significant force impacting the orbital motion of meteoroids and asteroids.
The effect is caused by sunlight as the space rocks are heated by the sun, eventually re-radiating the energy away as heat, which in turn creates a tiny thrust.
This can in turn change the asteroid's path, meaning there may be an increased risk of the rock heading for Earth.
This was something the original software - called Sentry - was unable to do.
Scientists were previously required to manually calculate and estimate the impact of the Yarkovsky effect.
Fortunately, there is no imminent threat of a 'doomsday asteroid' but astronomers keep a constant eye on the sky just in case.
Nasa currently has its eye on around 28,000 'near-Earth' asteroids with thousands of new space rock discoveries made every year.
Nasa is hoping to launch its Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission in 2026.
Don't miss out on the Daily Record's latest headlines and stories. Sign up to our newsletters here.
