Dr Chatterjee therefore suggests that anobject 40km in diameter hit the Earth off the coast of India and forced vast quantities of lava out of the Deccan Traps.
Just after Discovery's engines fired, launch controllers noticed a small rectangular object drop from the bottom of the ship, carom offan engine bell and vanish into the exhaust flames.
The preferred way to deal with rogue asteroids is still a Hollywood-style heroic space mission to knock the objectoff course, or possibly blow it up although almost surely as an unmanned effort.
