Washington, Apr 20 : Three former astronauts have claimed that they have evidence that remote parts of the Earth have endured 3 to 10 times more large-scale asteroid strikes than it has been ever revealed.

As part of a celebration of Earth Day, which falls on April 22, Ed Lu, Tom Jones, and Bill Anders, all veterans of space travel, are to give a presentation to scare us out of our complacent wits, CNet reported.

As Phys. org reports, the B612 Foundation will present data from a nuclear weapons warning network that shows -- at least to members of the group -- that large asteroids strike the Earth 3 to 10 times more than publicly revealed.

A quote released to entice people to the presentation -- to be held in Seattle -- is less than reassuring: "The only thing preventing a catastrophe from a 'city-killer' sized asteroid is blind luck."

However, the foundation, led by Lu, offered this in an advance press release: "This network has detected 26 multi-kiloton explosions since 2001, all of which are due to asteroid impacts. It shows that asteroid impacts are NOT rare -- but actually
3-10 times more common than we previously thought."

It would suggest that big, lumbering asteroids have hit us twice a year since 2001. This creates far more fear than a warning issued last year that said we should expect an asteroid strike every decade or two. (ANI)