Ms Bai failed in her attempts to prevent the experiment

Marina Bai is seeking $300m (£170m) in damages, saying the probe's impact on Comet Tempel 1 violated her "life and spiritual values".

She had tried to have a Moscow court prevent the experiment from taking place but her action was rejected.

Nasa smashed the washing machine-sized "impactor" into the comet at a distance of 133m km from Earth on Monday.

'Interference'

"It is obvious that elements of the comet's orbit and associated ephemera will change after the explosion, which interferes with my practice of astrology and deforms my horoscope," Ms Bai told the Izvestia daily newspaper.

Nasa scientists hope the experiment will reveal new information on the Solar System's original make-up and perhaps even how life on Earth emerged.

Ms Bai, from Moscow, said the Tempel 1 comet held an important place in her family history, as her grandfather wooed her grandmother by showing her the comet.

Her lawyer, Alexander Molokhov, said the case was based on solid legal ground, since Nasa has an office in Russia, located in the premises of the US embassy in Moscow.