Now it will take several decades for NASA to catalog nearly all the asteroids dangerous to Earth.
A new infrared space telescope called NEO Surveyor will only launch in 2028, not in 2026 as expected. The fact is, the cost of creation has doubled, writes Gizmodo.
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NASA’s plans to launch a new telescope dubbed “asteroid hunter” have changed after new calculations and new technical data.
The NEO Surveyor infrared space telescope was originally scheduled to go into space in 2026 at a cost of $600 million, but has now been delayed to mid-2028 due to rising construction costs. Now it’s $1.2 billion.
The main task of the NEO Surveyor telescope is to detect and catalog the maximum possible number of asteroids that pose a threat to Earth. This project is an important part of NASA’s planetary defense strategy against objects that are constantly approaching our planet from a dangerous distance.
In 2005, the US Congress commissioned NASA to identify and catalog at least 90% of all near-Earth asteroids greater than 100 meters in diameter that pose a danger to Earth. According to the plan, this target would be achieved by 2020. However, this naturally did not happen for various reasons. According to Kelly Fast of NASA, it will now take at least 30 years for the space agency to meet the challenge set by Congress.
The NEO Surveyor telescope will replace another space telescope called NEOWISE, which has been hunting asteroids since 2009. However, its mission was recently extended until 2023. A large delay between the end of the previous telescope’s operation and the launch of the next could adversely affect NASA’s entire search for near-Earth asteroids.
NASA’s planetary defense strategy against potentially dangerous asteroids is to detect them and mitigate the consequences of a potential impact. The NEO Surveyor and NEOWISE telescopes are designed to perform the initial mission.
On the other hand, it is necessary to remember the mission of the DART apparatus, which is also a part of the planetary defense strategy. As I wrote earlier, in September of this year Focus, this device crashed into an asteroid that posed no danger to Earth and, as subsequent observations showed, nevertheless changed its flight path. Moreover Focus He wrote that as a result of the impact, something unusual appeared that astronomers did not expect to see.
But dangerous asteroids must be detected in order for them to be deflected from their flight path. Therefore, delaying the launch date of NEO Surveyor is very unpleasant.
According to scientists, this telescope has many advantages over ground-based asteroid detection stations, and will perhaps be able to detect almost any dangerous asteroid much faster in 30 years.
The NEOWISE telescope, on the other hand, made observations of the visible part of space, as well as observing asteroids. Thanks to this, new maps of the Universe were created with previously unknown objects, as Focus has already written.
Focus also wrote that an asteroid that was discovered just hours before it hit Earth last month crashed.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.