FOCUS ON - WORK BEGINS ON NASA'S ASTEROID-HUNTING TELESCOPE

The infrared space telescope will search for potentially threatening near-Earth objects

- Elizabeth Rayne

After recently passing a critical test, NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor – an infrared telescope that will search for potentially threatening asteroids – has entered the building phase. NEO Surveyor is scheduled to launch in June 2028 and is the successor to the space agency’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission, which discovered thousands of near-Earth objects and classified them as asteroids or comets. When NEO Surveyor launches, it will be the first mission to seek out multiple near-earth asteroids at once. Some of its hardware and instruments are now being built so that the telescope can ultimately detect even faint asteroids. “NEO Surveyor represents the next generation for NASA’s ability to quickly detect, track and characterise potentially hazardous near-Earth objects,” Lindley Johnson, planetary defence officer for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, said.