NASA begins building a next-generation asteroid hunter

NASA intensifies its efforts after deflecting an asteroid – Dimorphos – at over 21,000 km/h in September 2022 detect possible asteroids and comets that are potentially dangerous and difficult to find in Earth’s orbit. The solution currently under construction is NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor.

Neo Surveyor is a space telescope with a mass of 1,300 kg. Scheduled to be released in June 2028 on a propeller (Atlas V or Falcon 9 Block 5) to a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point.

With an expected service life of 12 years, the artificial satellite is the first of its kind to be built with the specific purpose of building Earth’s planetary defense against nearby dangerous objects.

How will Neo Surveyor detect dangerous asteroids?

After the NEO Surveyor space telescope’s 1.6 million kilometers journey, its mission will be to visualize the solar system in infrared waves. A type of electromagnetic radiation that the human eye cannot detect. Also, these wavelengths are blocked by the atmosphere itself from the viewpoint of terrestrial observatories.

But NEO Surveyor’s brand new detectors are designed to observe two heat-sensitive infrared bands. small aperture from the telescope less than 50 centimeters.

Discovery of these elusive objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that reflect little visible light, is made possible at infrared wavelengths detectable at the new observatory. because these celestial bodies glow when heated by sunlight.