Scientists have rubbished the film Armageddon – in which Bruce Willis used a nuclear bomb to save Earth from a giant asteroid.

Students at the University of Leicester in England say Willis’ nuke would have had as much impact on the rock as a cheap firecracker – and was used so late that the planet would have been doomed anyway, they said.

The 18-day headstart in Armageddon “would leave no time for Bruce to travel to the asteroid and drill into its centre, let alone share any meaningful moments with Ben Affleck or Liv Tyler.

Their paper said our current level of technology is nowhere near sufficient to protect Earth from such an asteroid by this specific means of asteroid defence.