25,000 New Asteroids Found By NASA

Posted on July 16, 2010
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Would the United States government warn us of an impending asteroid impact? Would NASA tell us if any of these death rocks were on an impact trajectory with earth?

Worried about Earth-threatening asteroids? One of NASA’s newest space telescopes has spotted 25,000 never-before-seen asteroids in just six months.

Ninety-five of those are considered “near Earth,” but in the language of astronomy that means within 30 million miles. Luckily for us, none poses any threat to Earth anytime soon.

Called WISE for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the telescope completes its first full scan of the sky on Saturday and then begins another round of imaging.

What’s special about WISE is its ability to see through impenetrable veils of dust, picking up the heat glow of objects that are invisible to regular telescopes.

“Most telescopes focus on the hottest and brightest objects in the universe,” said Richard Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “WISE is especially sensitive to seeing what’s cool and dark, what you could call the stealth objects of the universe.”

Read Full Article Here: 25,000 new asteroids found by NASA’s sky mapping – Technology & science – Space – msnbc.com.

An asteroid impact is a rare event but one that could critically reduce our food supply and even end life on earth as we know it.

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