Saturday, February 12, 2022

Hopefully now we'll see the one we don't see coming

 

Good news, to a point, that NASA has improved their sky searching capabilities so that now the full sky can be scanned.  So that makes it less likely that an asteroidal planet-cruncher could sneak up on us and massively influence human civilization;  but it also makes it more possible that an approaching space destroyer could be spotted before it gets here, leaving us with much angst before the end of the world.

Not that catastrophic outcomes are likely, mind you -- but now we (collectively, humans) have a better chance of seeing bad news coming.


NASA Asteroid Tracking System Now Capable of Full Sky Search

"Now comprised of four telescopes, [Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System] ATLAS has expanded its reach to the southern hemisphere from the two existing northern-hemisphere telescopes on Haleakalā and Mauna Loa in Hawai’i to include two additional observatories in South Africa and Chile." 

One of the ATLAS telescopes:



 






 

(I haven't mentioned the DART mission;  I'm very curious to see if that one works.  We don't have to wait too long to find out;  the collision and hopeful redirection will happen in late September - early October of this year.)


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