'Planet killer' asteroids pose 'no threat' to Earth for at least 1,000 YEARS, scientists say 

Planet killing asteroids have been a nerve-wracking prospect ever since we learned of the dinosaurs' demise. 

But scientists claims we can rest easy for now, as giant asteroid collisions pose no real threat to Earth for at least 1,000 years.

Reassuring research on circulating asteroids suggests that a dinosaur-style smash event is probably unlikely for the time being. 

While a 3,600ft-wide space rock known as '1994 PC1' poses the largest risk, this was still miniscule, with reportedly just a 0.00151 per cent chance of passing within the Moon's orbit. 

'It's good news,'  Oscar Fuentes-Muñoz from the University of Colorado told the MIT Technology Review. 'As far as we know, there's no impact in the next 1,000 years.'

Asteroid '1994 PC1' posed the biggest risk with reportedly just a 0.00151 per cent chance of passing within the moon's orbit within the next 1,000 years (file image)

READ MORE: The six asteroids that are on course to crash into Earth 

Asteroid Bennu has a one in 2,700 chance of hitting Earth

Around 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out along with more than half the world's species following an asteroid collision which carved out the Chicxulub crater in what is now the Gulf of Mexico. 

As of today, there are currently 1,283,023 known asteroids, according to NASA.

These come in all shapes and sizes, with the largest being around 329 miles (530 kilometers) in diameter.

For this study, scientists at the University of Colorado and the California Institute of Technology analysed a catalogue of 'km-sized near Earth objects' (0.6mile-wide).

While these are much smaller than the 6.2-mile-wide dinosaur-killing asteroid, they are by no means harmless.

A rock this size could throw Earth into a mini Ice Age, with the world also becoming much darker due to soot and dust in the atmosphere. 

Researchers then analysed the distance between each asteroid and Earth before looking into their potential risks in the next millennium. 

Albeit miniscule, the chance of the 3,600ft-wide asteroid 1994 PC1 smashing into Earth was found to be 10 times higher than any other asteroid listed.

This was followed by the 6,138ft-wide 314082 Dryope and 16,404ft-wide 4179 Toutatis, with the latter known as the 'potato-shaped' asteroid that caused mass fear in 2004. 

Humans shouldn't worry about a dinosaur-style asteroid event for the next millennium (file image)

4179 Toutatis: The huge asteroid sparked fear in 2004, but won't be back for quite a while 

Pictured: a piece of the Chelyabinsk meteorite that exploded over Russia, injuring over 1,000 people

Professor Peter Wheatley, Department of Physics, University of Warwick told MailOnline: 'The authors identify 28 asteroids that pose a non-zero threat to Earth over the next 1,000 years, although thankfully none within the next century. Collisions with these 28 asteroids remain unlikely, but these results will allow future studies to target their attention on the most dangerous objects. 

'This kind of work aims to give humanity an early warming of a catastrophic collision, so that we can develop spacecraft that could nudge an asteroid just enough to miss the Earth. 

'Plans for these spacecraft are already being made, and NASA carried out a test mission 2022, called DART, which successfully altered the orbit of a small moon of a known asteroid by crashing into it at high speed.' 

Despite these comforting results, smaller asteroids do still pose risk to Earth during the next 100 and 1,000 years. 

The European Space Agency found that 878 smaller asteroids are at risk of hitting Earth in the next century. 

These can still lead to 'serious devastation', as shown ten years ago when a 20-metre-wide meteor injured more than 1,000 people in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Professor Peter Wheatley added: 'More work is needed, especially in assessing the risk of asteroids smaller than 1km that still have the potential to destroy an entire city. While a collision in our lifetimes is unlikely, the majority of these smaller asteroids are still to be found.'