We have found the 40 000th near-Earth asteroid! ☄️

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UFONews
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Thankfully, none of the 40 000 known near-Earth asteroids are cause for concern for the foreseeable future. However, we are not just waiting around for the day we do detect a hazard.

Through our Planetary Defence programme, we are actively developing Europe’s ability to detect and deflect asteroids.

One key mission is Hera, currently en route to the asteroid Dimorphos. Hera will closely study the aftermath of NASA’s DART impact in 2022, which deliberately changed the asteroid’s orbit.
By analysing how Dimorphos responded to that collision, Hera will help turn asteroid deflection from an experiment into a reliable planetary defence technique.

We’re also preparing Ramses. The mission will rendezvous with the 375-metre asteroid Apophis and accompany it during its exceptionally close, but safe, flyby of Earth in 2029.

Our NEOMIR mission will enable us to detect impact hazards similar to the Chelyabinsk event in advance for the first time. Targeted for launch in the mid-2030s, NEOMIR will close a large blind spot on the dayside hemisphere of Earth as bright sunlight prevents the detection of asteroids with optical, ground-based telescopes.

???? European Space Agency (ESA)
???? NASA/JPL/JHUAPL; TGO/CaSSIS, creative commons by SA 3.0 IGO

#ESA #Asteroid #Space
Category
Deep Space
Tags
ESA, European Space Agency, asteroid
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