Asteroid strike alerts on Twitter put on hold after Nasa's funding is suspended by Congress stalemate

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Twitter users are facing the earth-shattering news today that they will have to survive without tweet notifications of impending asteroid strikes.

In a final tweet before suspension, Nasa's Asteroid Watch Twitter account admitted that the service has been switched off as part of the US government's Congress stalemate-induced shutdown.

"In the event of government shutdown, we will not be posting or responding from this account. We sincerely hope to resume tweets soon," it said in a tweet on 30 September.

More than a million Twitter users rely on the service for advanced notice of asteroid strikes.

Heather Hurlburt (@natsecHeather) nobody tell the asteroids MT @AsteroidWatch If govt shuts down, we wont post or respond fm this acct.sincerely hope to resume tweets soon

Simone Landon (@simonelandon) the terrorists have won RT @AsteroidWatch: In the event of government shutdown, we will not be posting or responding from this account

Bryan Borzykowski (@bborzyko) Oh great. We're all going to die. @AsteroidWatch: In the event of govt. shutdown, we will not be posting or responding from this account.

Although the US government shutdown is having an effect on Nasa's operations, thankfully "many observatories, astronomers are [still] watching the skies," according to Nasa, with a list of near-Earth objects continuing to be updated as part of the Near Earth Object Program.

800,000 federal workers forced to stay at home

Nasa will be forced to furlough almost all of its employees due to the US government shutdown, although a core group of staff will continue to support the International Space Station from mission control in Houston.

An estimated 800,000 federal workers will be forced to stay at home during the shutdown, and will have an immediate affect on the fragile US economy and services, Barack Obama has warned.

• After weeks of wrangling, the American government has been forced into a shutdown over politics and Obamacare