Mission is planned to alter course of asteroid

If an asteroid hit Earth it would create a massive crater, potentially leave the whole planet in the dark for a year or more, destroy crops and unleash tsunamis.

BRITISH space scientists and engineers have submitted detailed plans for a mission to help divert an asteroid that could collide with Earth in 2036.

Apophis, a 240-mile wide remnant of the early solar system, believed to be made mainly of rock, circles the Sun in an orbit that brings it close to the Earth every few years.