Asteroids heating up in Earth’s orbit are beginning to face away from the Sun and change their trajectory towards Earth, with NASA scientists saying that space radiation is acting “like a small thruster”.

PhD meteor specialist, Helena Bates, said asteroids change direction due to a phenomenon called the Yarkovsky effect.

She said: “The Yarkovsky effect is basically when the Sun heats up one side of the rotating body so the asteroid is rotating as it orbits the Sun.

“And as one side heats up, it kind of absorbs heat and then, as it rotates, that side will begin to face away from the Sun and will radiate that heat outwards.

“That basically acts like a small thruster to push the asteroid into a slightly different orbit.

“And because the amount of heat that the asteroid absorbs is to do with things like composition, what the asteroids made of, which we don’t know, that means it’s really really hard to predict the effect of the Sun.” CONTINUE READING