Watch the video: An asteroid passed close to Earth; NASA is increasing the search for asteroids that threaten humanity

An asteroid passed on 18/2/14 in the morning, and its passage was broadcast live; NASA is now building new partnerships for the Asteroid Grand Challenge competition which aims to accelerate NASA's current planetary defense work, and thereby help discover the asteroids that threaten the human population and also know what to do about them. At the same time, NASA is developing the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM)

An asteroid with a diameter of 270 meters made a close flyby of the Earth tonight (February 18). The near-Earth asteroid NEA 2000 EM26 passed by at a distance of almost 9 times the distance of the Moon, at a speed of 12.3 kilometers per second, but astronomers want to use the opportunity to follow it and learn more about its details. The SLOOH website's online telescope tracked it as it passed. The diameter of the asteroid is about 270 meters, almost 10 times the one that hit the year it passed in Russia

According to Paul Cox, the technical man and director of research at SLOOH, new asteroids that could endanger the Earth are being discovered all the time, sometimes only a few days before they approach the Earth. We have to find them before they hurt us."

One year ago, on February 15, 2013, the world witnessed the danger posed by near-Earth objects, when a relatively small asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere, exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, releasing more energy than a large atomic bomb. The tracking of near-Earth asteroids has become an important field for the astronomical community in recent years, which has so far discovered 10,713 near-Earth objects.

In a message published by NASA On the one-year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk events, it was announced that the agency is now building new partnerships for the Asteroid Grand Challenge competition, which aims to accelerate NASA's current planetary defense work, and thereby help discover the asteroids that threaten the human population and also know what to do about them. At the same time, NASA is developing the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) - a first attempt of its kind to identify, capture and redirect an asteroid to a safe orbit around the moon, as part of a manned mission that will take place in the twenties. ARM will make use of NASA's other developments, including the Orion spacecraft and the SLS launch system, as well as powerful electrical systems powered by solar energy.

The Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded project, has discovered the most near-Earth objects since its launch and is about to undergo an upgrade, says Lindley Johnson, director of the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We will also have telescopes with upgraded detection capabilities such as Fanstars 2 and Atlas at our disposal, and the military R&D agency DARPA will also provide us with access to its new telescope. In addition, NASA plans to launch dedicated satellites to locate the asteroid that will be dragged into orbit around the moon in the ARM project, among other things, using the WISE spacecraft that was reactivated for this purpose under the name NEOWISE and can be used for characterization Potential targets for AFM.

Last week we reported that on the occasion of the one year anniversary of the asteroid impact in Russia, it was decided to Cooperation between the countries against threats from space.