NEO Surveyor

Near-Earth Object Surveyor Space Telescope

future Mission

small bodies of the solar system

Asteroids and Comets

GROUND-BASED TELESCOPES

NEO Observations Program

WHY NASA STUDIES ASTEROIDS

Planetary Defense
Spacecraft against a green starfield

Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor is the first space telescope specifically designed to hunt asteroids and comets that may be potential hazards to Earth.

Type

Space Telescope

Launch

June 2028 (Proposed)

Target

Asteroids, Comets

Objective

Hunt asteroids and comets that may be potential hazards to Earth

Overview

Building on the success of NASA's NEOWISE space telescope, the agency's NEO Surveyor will be the first spacecraft created specifically to find large numbers of asteroids and comets that are potentially hazardous to Earth.

As it scans the solar system, NEO Surveyor's sensitive infrared detectors will track the most elusive near-Earth objects. Dark asteroids and comets don't reflect much visible light, for example, but they will glow in the infrared spectrum as they’re heated by sunlight.

In addition, NEO Surveyor will be able to find asteroids that approach Earth from the direction of the Sun, as well as ones both leading and trailing our planet's orbit, where they are typically obscured by the glare of sunlight. All of these are threats that larger ground-based observatories could miss.

Use NASA's Eyes on Asteroids interactive (below) for a real-time visualization of every known asteroid or comet classified as a Near-Earth Object, or NEO.

Why We're Launching NEO Surveyor

  • Finding near-Earth objects is required by law.
  • We can only do something about hazardous near-Earth objects if we can find them first.
  • NEO Surveyor will find asteroids and comets that other space missions cannot, filling a critical gap in humanity’s ability to detect potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.
  • In addition to planetary defense, scientists will use data from NEO Surveyor for studies of near-Earth objects to learn more about the evolution of the solar system.
Featured Story

Work Is Under Way on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter

The mirrors for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope are being installed and aligned, and work on other spacecraft components…

Read the Story

Learn More About Asteroids

  • Closeup view of a rocky, diamond-shaped asteroid in space

    Next Five Asteroid Approaches

    The Asteroid Watch dashboard tracks asteroids and comets that will make relatively close approaches to Earth.

  • Closeup view of a rocky, diamond-shaped asteroid in space

    Asteroid Watch

    The Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) tracks the orbits of all known near-Earth objects, and predicts their close approaches with Earth.

  • One of the telescopes used in the Catalina Sky Survey. The sun sets behind the telescope dome, which is open.

    Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program

    The program is a key element of NASA’s Planetary Defense Program, funding efforts to search for undiscovered NEOs using observatories around the world.

  • Hubble floats above a blue Earth streaked with clouds.

    Hubble Space Telescope

    Hubble contributes regularly to our understanding of asteroids.

Planetary Defense at NASA

In 2016, NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) to manage the agency's ongoing mission of finding, tracking, and better understanding asteroids and comets that could pose an impact hazard to Earth.

Learn More
Asteroid Bennu
In a cavernous, bright white, sparkling clean room, workers wearing white coats, hair nets, blue pants, and white booties over their shoes stand and watch a large, white, metal-looking box suspended beneath an enormous crane, which runs on yellow tracks spanning the room, with orange straps supporting the weight of the box.
At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, on June 7, 2024, clean room technicians use a crane to lift the lid of the Medium Articulating Transportation System (MATS), which was used to build and transport components for NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission. Inside the MATS is the Medium Articulating Assembly Dolly (MAAD), a platform that supported the spacecraft's instrument enclosure, which was being constructed inside the High Bay 1 clean room at JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility in late 2024. The instrument enclosure contains NEO Surveyor’s telescope, mirrors, and infrared sensors that will be used to detect, track, and characterize the most hazardous near-Earth objects, such as large asteroids or comets that could threaten our planet. NEO Surveyor is scheduled to launch no sooner than 2027.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Asteroid Stories

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