NASA’s NEO Surveyor Telescope Aims to Protect Us From Dangerous Asteroids

Many astronomers worry that it’s only a matter of time until another devastating asteroid will smash into Earth, as it happened roughly 66 million years ago when the dinosaurs went extinct. Hopefully or not, most of us won’t be around when and if it will happen, but the fate of our descendants is at stake

Once again, NASA has a strong ace up its sleeve. According to Insider, the American space agency is advancing a space telescope for tracking down 90% of the asteroids that are big enough to destroy New York. Although the technology is still not advanced enough to deal with a “Chicxulub 2.0” asteroid, it means a significant step towards that goal.

NASA wants to launch NEO Surveyor in 2026

After a few years of passing it over, NASA finally advances the Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission (aka NEO Surveyor), meaning the space agency’s idea of dealing with huge asteroids that approach our planet. The telescope has passed a key review, and the American space agency announced that the next stage of development is coming. Engineers can already start to build new parts for the telescope, and if everything goes as planned, NEO Surveyor will launch in 2026.

While speaking about dangerous asteroids that could pose a threat to us, Paul Chodas, who is the manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies of NASA, declared for Insider:

What you want to do is find them early, find them as early as possible – as in years, or even decades, before they pose a threat,
The dinosaurs didn’t have a space program, and look what happened to them. We have a space program. And given enough time, we can do something about this threat.

Will the world ever be fully prepared for an encounter with a devastating asteroid that’s capable of destroying the entire planet? Only time will tell for sure, and we have enough reasons to be optimistic!