Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and Visible Wavelength Telescopes

Abstract

Near Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids or comets ranging in size from tens of meters to tens of kilometers with trajectories that potentially intersect with Earth’s orbit. Although large impacts with Earth are exceedingly rare, the early detection of hazardous asteroids is important for preparing possible countermeasures. NASA is currently tracking nearly all the kilometer-sized asteroids large enough to cause a global extinction event and has determined that they are not on collision courses with Earth; however, smaller asteroids that are more numerous and difficult to detect still have the potential to cause significant destruction at a regional level.1 The 2005 George E. Brown Act charged NASA with detecting 90% of asteroids 140 meters in diameter or larger by 2020. Having only catalogued about one third of the estimated 24,000 NEOs larger than 140 meters after two decades, NASA is still far from achieving this goal and will not be able to accomplish it with currently available resources.