Simon Lang is stepping down as president of the Hampstead Scientific Society

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IN a gloomy week in which energy bills were set to soar, Arsenal surrendered the title race and Martin Fowler was killed by exploding bits of the Queen Vic, we have some good news to report: We might not all be wiped out by an asteroid after all!

With NASA raising the possibility of a giant rock – or a mini planet to be accurate – crashing into Earth within seven years, we asked Hampstead’s own space expert what he thought and he assured us he was not losing any sleep “just yet”.

Simon Lang, the president of the Hampstead Scientific Society, based at the Hampstead Observatory near Whitestone Pond, said the stories about the asteroid’s possible collision course should not be raising undue alarm.

“To put it in context, the last ‘big one’ was the asteroid that created Meteor Crater in Arizona and that was 50,000 years ago,” he said.

“The chances of a catastrophic one are low. We regularly see NEOs [near Earth objects] now our detection of such things has improved exponentially with many more observations of them. I don’t think any of us should lose sleep about being hit just yet. The scientists are suggesting the chances of it hitting us are very low.”

The NASA calculations had people thinking of the classic 1998 film Armageddon (below) in which the space agency tries to prevent humans going the same way as the dinosaurs.

It tackles the hurtling asteroid by drilling a hole in it and blowing it up with a nuclear bomb inside.

Such drastic measures may not be needed to halt the 300ft 2024 YR4 which has grabbed extinction headlines for the past month.

The threat of a smash in 2032 has been downgraded from the original scary warnings.

And Mr Lang, who is stepping down after decades as the society’s president, said: “We often get Earth-grazing asteroids. I might have witnessed a ‘big ’un’ back in the 90s but the jury will be permanently out without enough proper data.

“Typically the Russians were flagging such threats regularly during the 1980s but as things came to pass, well they did and didn’t strike us! “

Originally from Somers Town and a plumber by trade, Mr Lang is stepping back from the HSS to care for his wife after years of community work.

He also suggested that the recent interest in seven of our Solar System’s planets aligning in the night sky this month had been “blown out of all proportion”.

Seven planets – Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune, Mercury and Saturn – have all been briefly visible this week in the evening sky.

But Mr Lang said: “Most of the planets are available in the night sky most of the time. It’s just they happen to be around while people are likely to be awake at the moment.

“One doesn’t need an observatory to see the brighter ones like Venus, Jupiter and Mars.”

On leaving the HSS, Mr Lang – who now lives in Hampstead – said he “did not know what the future holds” but that he was leaving the HSS “feeling I did my bit and I might return to a lesser role in future but my health isn’t great either”.