NASA is looking to build a new space telescope to hunt asteroids that could collide with Earth.
Its planetary science advisory committee has backed a project calle the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission. It was approved in September under the control of NASA’s California based Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The hope is the new telescope will become active at some point from 2025 onwards, if the requisite funding can be acquired.
In 2005 Congress instructed NASA to identity 90 percent of potentially dangerous asteroids larger than 450 feet long by the end of next year.
This deadline will almost certainly be missed as the project ran into funding difficulty.
However in 2016 Alone 564 asteroids of this size were discovered.
According to Space.com around 360 asteroids of this category were discovered this year to late September.
Asteroid Terror: NASA wants a new telescope(Image: Getty Images)
Asteroid terror: NASA want the telescope to prevent human extinction(Ima ge: Getty Images)
An asteroid strike on Earth from a large rock could cause carnage.
In response authorities spend considerable resources tracking known asteroids and searching for new ones.
The Cretaceous – Paleogene extinction event, which wiped out the dinosaurs, is believed by many scientists to have been caused by an asteroid impact.
As a result there are fears a new strike could prove equally devastating.
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Asteroid terror: NASA’s telescope concept(Image: NASA)
NASA tracks major asteroids in the vicinity of Earth to check whether they are likely to collide and cause damage.
However sometimes authorities are taken by surprise, particularly by smaller rocks.
NASA recently admitted it only identified an asteroid, 2019 MO, hours before it crashed into Earth.
The collision took place on June 29, with the asteroid burning up in the atmosphere above the Caribbean.
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Asteroid terror: An asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs(Image: Getty Images)
NASA: The new telescope will help with asteroid detection(Image: Getty Images)
2019 MO was approximately 300, 000 from Earth when it
However sometimes authorities are taken by surprise, especially by smaller rocks .
NASA recently admitted it only identified an asteroid, 2019 MO, hours before it crashed into Earth.
The collision took place on June 29, with the asteroid burning up in the atmosphere above the Caribbean.
Asteroid terror: In July a 450 -foot-wide asteroid came within 40, 000 miles of Earth(Image: Getty Images)
2019 MO was approximately 300, 000 from Earth when it was identified by NASA.
The asteroid in question was approximately the same size as a six-story building.
(In July a) – foot-wide asteroid came within 40, 000 miles of Earth, the largest of its size in a century.
Kelly Fast, who runs the agency’s Near Earth Object Observation program, commented: “The whole point is to be able to find all of these asteroids and to catalog their orbits precisely and to calculate them into the future.
“So, you know if it is going to pass 19 lunar distances away like 2006 QQ or if it is going to pass closer – or if it is going to pose an impact threat. ”
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