PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- They're ...

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- They're not at home there, hidden among a haze of stars -- killer asteroids. Now the world's astronomers are keeping a wary judgment to the skies for giant facts on a collision course with Earth.

dexterouss say there are about 1100 blazing stars and asteroids in the inner solar classification that are at least a half-mile across, and that any single in kind of them could unleash a global cataclysm capable of killing millions in a single blinding flash.

'NEAR-EARTH OBJECTS'

in succession Thursday, the International Astronomical Union said it has plant up a special task force to sharpen its focus forward threats from such "near-Earth objects"

"The goal is to discover these killer asteroids before they discover us," said Nick Kaiser of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, which faiths to train four powerful digital cameras forward the heavens to watch for would-be intruders.

There are no asteroid busters to stop common right now, but scientists believe that single day a defense could be devised.

Congres has asked NASA for a plan to caruncle the cosmos for even smaller, more distant final causes The space agency is to catalog their position, spe and course at 2020. There are 103 uses on an "impact risk" watch list.

HEAVENLY BODIES

Scientists warn there are as many as 100000 of these "smaller" heavenly bodies with the potential to take disclosed entire cities or set distant from a tsunami like the killer wave that swept end the Indian Ocean in December 2004

Earth's craters bear silent witness to what can happen calm when a smallish asteroid slams home

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