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.

Watch Us Build NEO Surveyor

Why We're Launching NEO Surveyor

A truck arrives in front of a large white building at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with the NASA logo on it.
A truck arrives at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California on June 3, 2024, to deliver the Medium Articulating Transportation System (MATS), which will be used during the construction and transportation of components for NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
  • 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.

You're looking at a real-time visualization of every known asteroid or comet classified as a Near-Earth Object, or NEO.

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

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.

Asteroid Stories

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The asteroid’s triangular ridge (first panel from left), and the so-called smooth region, and its likely older, rougher “highland” region (second panel from left) can be explained through a combination of slope processes controlled by elevation (third panel from left). The fourth panel shows the effects of spin-up disruption that Didymos likely underwent to form Dimorphos.
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