Killer asteroids with the destructive potential to wipe out vast swathes of humanity strike every hundreds of millions of years. But William Cohen, the former US Secretary of Defence under President Bill Clinton, fears the next asteroid strike could happen even earlier. The colossal asteroid, which is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs, struck in modern-day Mexico some 65 million years ago. The asteroid only measured an estimated 6.8 miles to 50.3 miles (11km to 81km) in diameter but was responsible for the extinction of 75 percent of all life on Earth.
Should a genuine asteroid threat present itself in the near future, Mr Cohen warned it would take a much smaller asteroid to rain fire and brimstone over Earth.
Speaking to George Noory of Coast to Coast AM radio, Mr Cohen said a 450ft-wide (137m) asteroid could wipe out an entire city or region.
An even bigger, half-a-mile (800m) space rock, could completely devastate the planet.
And the biggest danger associated with deep space impacts is “it could be tomorrow”.
READ MORE: NASA asteroid tracker: GIANT 1,100FT asteroid could strike Earth in October 2019
Asteroid warning: William Cohen warned of killer asteroids striking Earth (Image: GETTY)
Mr Cohen said: “If you look at the speed at which they come in, 33,000mph to 40,000mph with that kind of size, it would devastate the planet.
It would devastate the planet
William Cohen, former US Secretary of Defence
“It would crack the mantle of the Earth. If it landed in the sea it would crack the mantle there and then take the centre of our Earth and push it up into the atmosphere.
“It would turn into fireballs coming down and
