NASA is developing for detecting potentially dangerous asteroids.

A large space rock came fairly close to Earth on Sunday night. Astronomers knew it wasn't going to hit Earth, thanks in part to a new tool NASA is developing for detecting potentially dangerous asteroids.

The tool is a computer program called Scout, and it's being tested at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Think of Scout as a celestial intruder alert system.

It's constantly scanning data from telescopes to see if there are any reports of so-called Near Earth Objects.

If it finds one, it makes a quick calculation of whether Earth is at risk, and instructs other telescopes to make follow-up observations to see if any risk is real.

NASA pays for several telescopes around the planet to scan the skies on a nightly basis, looking for these objects. "The NASA surveys are finding something like at least five asteroids every night," says astronomer Paul Chodas of JPL.

But then the trick is to figure out which new objects might hit Earth.

"When a telescope first finds a moving object, all you know is it's just a dot, moving on the sky," says Chodas. "You have no information about how far away it is.

"The more telescopes you get pointed at an object, the more data you get, and the more you're sure you are how big it is and which way it's headed. But sometimes you don't have a lot of time to make those observations.

"Objects can come close to the Earth shortly after discovery, sometimes one day, two days, even hours in some cases," says JPL's Davide Farnocchia. "The main goal of Scout is to speed up the confirmation process."

The rock that whizzed past Earth tonight was discovered on the night of Oct. 25-26 by the NASA-funded Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) on Maui, Hawaii. Within a few hours, preliminary details about the object appeared on a Web page maintained by the Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Scout did a quick analysis of the preliminary details and determined that the object was headed for Earth but would miss us by about 310,000 miles.

Comments

Plane that crashed in Malta was monitoring migrant trafficking off Libya for France

VALLETTA, MALTA—A small plane heading toward Libya’s coast to monitor migrant trafficking routes for the French government crashed soon after takeoff from Malta’s airport Monday, killing all five French crew members, authorities said. The twin-prop Fairchild Metroliner banked to the right and slammed into the ground in a huge fireball soon after lifting off at 7:20 a.m., according to video of the moment captured by a dashboard videocam and posted on Facebook. Malta’s government said all five victims were French. It said the flight was part of a French Customs surveillance operation tracing routes of illicit trafficking, both of humans and drugs, leaving Libya’s lawless coasts. Libya is the main point of departure for the tens of thousands of migrants who have been paying smugglers to bring them toward Europe by boat. Earlier, authorities had said the flight was headed to Misrata, Libya; the government said later that the aircraft was due to return to Malta within a few hours withou...

First woman president in Namibia

Namibia has its first woman president. Namibians say it won’t mean much for women Namibia’s presidential and National Assembly elections this year have been historic on many fronts. They were the country’s most controversial elections, with accusations of foreign interference and election rigging at the forefront; while the country’s first female president was elected. The South West Africa People’s Organisation’s (Swapo’s) Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was announced as the president-elect on Tuesday night, with 57.69% of the vote. The announcement was made at the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s (ECN’s) headquarters in Windhoek, but many parties were absent — contributing to a sombre mood. Multiple parties, including the incoming official opposition party, the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), and the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) boycotted the announcement, as they do not recognise the election’s results. In a statement issued moments before the announcement, the IPC reaffirmed its...

Donald Trump touts foreign contacts on Twitter, lashes media report

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump used his Twitter account on Wednesday to denounce reports of problems in his transition team, singling out the New York Times for saying world leaders have had trouble getting in touch with him. Trump, whose aggressive use of Twitter against rivals was a key element of his presidential campaign, tweeted a list of several world leaders he had spoken with since his upset victory in the Australia, New Zealand, and more. I am always available to them. @nytimes is just upset that they looked like fools in their coverage of me," Trump continued. He focused on the Times, a frequent Twitter target for Trump, because it said U.S. allies were "scrambling to figure out how and when to contact Mr. Trump." "The failing @nytimes story is so totally wrong on transition," he tweeted. "It is going so smoothly. Also, I have spoken to many foreign leaders." On Tuesday night, Trump had defended his transition team amid reports ...

World-class news

Search This Blog