Pan-STARRS tagged posts

More than 15,000 Near-Earth Objects, NEO and Counting

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Final sequence of images of Asteroid Lutetia, acquired on 10 July 2010 by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft just before making closest approach of 3162 km. Lutetia is an elongated body, with its longest side around 130 km. ~ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The international effort to find, confirm and catalogue the multitude of asteroids that pose a threat to our planet has reached a milestone: 15 000 discovered – with many more to go.The number of catalogued asteroids approaching Earth has grown rapidly since the count reached 10 000 only 3 years ago. Near-Earth objects, or NEOs, are asteroids or comets with sizes ranging from metres to tens of kilometres whose orbits come close to ours, ie they could hit our planet.

The discovered NEOs are part of a much lar...

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