New space telescope could spot potentially hazardous asteroids heading for Earth (Page 1/1) rinselberg JUL 04, 10:50 PM "New space telescope could spot potentially hazardous asteroids heading for Earth" Ashely Strickland for CNN; June 30, 2021. https://www.cnn.com/2021/06...scope-scn/index.html Some highlights from the article, selected by me: quote The Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope, or NEO Surveyor, has been approved by NASA to move forward to the design phase. The 20-foot-long (6-meter-long) infrared telescope would bolster planetary defense by helping astronomers find asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of Earth's orbit. The mission's launch is currently scheduled for the first half of 2026. "NEO Surveyor will have the capability to rapidly accelerate the rate at which NASA is able to discover asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard to the Earth, and it is being designed to discover 90 percent of asteroids 140 meters (459 feet) in size or larger within a decade of being launched," said Mike Kelley, NEO Surveyor program scientist at NASA Headquarters, in a statement. . . . The NEO Surveyor will use infrared sensors that can help astronomers find these objects -- even ones that may approach Earth during the day from the direction of the sun. This isn't something that's possible using ground-based observatories. . . . sourmash JUL 05, 09:09 AM An asteroid is about the only thing that can save us.