The Near Earth Objects (NEO) Task Force, set up by the UK Government, has made recommendations to examine more closely the risks of an asteroid colliding with the Earth.
One of the options is to launch a co-ordinated international fleet of microsatellites to visit different types of NEOs, to find out their characteristics. NEOs are among the thousands of asteroids that orbit the Sun, ranging in size from pebbles to mountain-sized objects, that make relatively close encounters with the Earth.
It is possible that collisions have already occurred in early history. Between 10% and 30% of the objects are also comets. A graphic example of the danger was the collision of the distintegrating comet Shoemaker Levy with Jupiter in 1994.
The greatest uncertainty is the incomplete knowledge of the paths of NEOs, says the report. Its major recommendation is that the UK should seek partners to build a new survey telescope in the southern hemisphere dedicated to surveying the objects and that all available telescopes be used to search for NEOs on a nightly basis.
Source: Flight International
