Nasa is planning an ambitious mission to 'lasso' a hunk of an asteroid and drag it back to Earth.

By hauling the rock across the vastness of space, scientists hope to unravel the mysteries of the universe - and potentially use it as a staging point to explore the solar system.

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Nasa is now deep into the planning phase for its ARM mission to redirect a portion of an asteroid into lunar orbit.

The current target is the 2008 EV5, which is believed to be rich with rare metals and minerals.

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The $1.25bn mission will also help demonstrate the technology needed to take humans to the surface of Mars.

In 2021 NASA hopes to send a unmanned spacecraft to the asteroid and retrieve a boulder from its surface.

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The vehicle would land on a large asteroid and grippers on the end of the robotic arms would grasp and secure a boulder from the surface of a large asteroid.

It would then disengage and return to place that boulder into a Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO) of the moon, leaving it in a stable orbit for future studies.

From there it will be retrieved by astronauts - four years after launch.

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The 20-tonne boulder is too small to harm the earth because it would burn up in the atmosphere.

The 1,300ft diameter asteroid was once considered a danger to Earth, but now space experts think it could contain incredibly valuable resources.

Jonathan McDowell, Smithsonian Institution professor, told the Daily Star: "There isn't too much concern about asteroids contaminating Earth.

"Remember we get hit by them every now and again, so they've already contaminated us good and proper.

"Bigger concern, albeit just scientific, is us contaminating the asteroid."