Ominous discussions in Congress last week only sounded like science fiction. The talk about lasers and asteroids heading toward Earth was factual, though one online news report calls it "the most surreal and amazing congressional hearing ever to take place." NASA officials told House and Senate committees that more money is needed for powerful telescopes to spot giant asteroids that could hit our planet and for lasers that could knock threats off-course.

Right now, scientists say, 90 percent of the asteroids that could strike Earth are still undiscovered. NASA is part of a global network of telescopes on the ground and in space that spot, track and analyze asteroids and comets passing nearby. A U.S. program called "Spaceguard" calculates their size and orbits to determine if any could be hazards. But without many years of warning, experts add, there's no way to stop an asteroid on a collision course

Lawmakers held the hearings a little more than a month after two rare events took place on Feb. 15. A small asteroid passed within 17,000 miles of Earth and a meteor with a 56-foot estimated diameter exploded over Russia, injuring more than 1,000 people and bringing the risks of future incidents into clearer focus. While NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says cuts in funding to monitor and detect space rocks could have devastating consequences, though he acknowledges there's just an "extremely remote" chance a mega-asteroid will strike in the next100 years.

Ex-astronaut says: "Right now we have no options. If you don't know where they are, there's nothing you can do." – Ed Lu, chief executive of a foundation studying the issue

Professor says: "What the film Armageddon did was basically convince the American people that if anything bad happened, people would get in a shuttle and fix it. That is myth. That is not reality." -- Joan Johnson-Freese, U.S. Naval War College

White House adviser says: "The odds of a near-Earth object strike causing massive casualties and destruction of infrastructure are very small, but the potential consequences of such an event are so large that it makes sense to take the risk seriously." – John Holdren, science adviser to president