NEO Surveyor Stories

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

6 min read

The mirrors for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope are being installed and aligned, and work on other spacecraft components is accelerating. NASA’s new asteroid-hunting spacecraft is taking shape at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Called NEO Surveyor…

Article3 months ago

NASA Asteroid Experts Create Hypothetical Impact Scenario for Exercise

5 min read

The fifth Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise focused on an asteroid impact scenario designed by NASA JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies. A large asteroid impacting Earth is highly unlikely for the foreseeable future. But because the damage from…

Article5 months ago

NASA’s NEOWISE Infrared Heritage Will Live On

5 min read

NASA’s near-Earth-object-hunting mission NEOWISE is nearing its conclusion. But its work will carry on with NASA’s next-generation infrared mission: NEO Surveyor. After more than 14 successful years in space, NASA’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission will end…

Article5 months ago

NASA’s NEOWISE Extends Legacy With Decade of Near-Earth Object Data

6 min read

As the infrared space telescope continues its long-duration survey of the universe, it is creating a unique resource for future astronomers to make new discoveries. NASA’s NEOWISE mission has released its 10th year of infrared data – the latest in…

Article8 months ago

NASA’s NEOWISE Celebrates 10 Years, Plans End of Mission

6 min read

The asteroid and comet-hunting infrared space telescope has gathered an impressive haul of observations, but it’s now at the mercy of the Sun, which is accelerating its demise. NASA’s NEOWISE has had a busy decade. Since its reactivated mission began…

Article11 months ago

Data From NASA’s WISE Used to Preview Lucy Mission’s Asteroid Dinkinesh

4 min read

Researchers have utilized infrared survey data to refine the asteroid’s size and surface brightness in support of the Nov. 1 encounter by NASA’s Lucy mission. NASA’s Lucy mission will soon have its first asteroid encounter as the spacecraft travels through…

Article1 year ago

Construction Begins on NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Hunter

5 min read

NEO Surveyor is the first purpose-built space telescope that will advance NASA’s planetary defense efforts by finding and tracking hazardous near-Earth objects. A space telescope designed to search for the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets that stray into Earth’s orbital neighborhood,…

Article2 years ago

NASA Approves Asteroid Hunting Space Telescope to Continue Development

4 min read

NASA has approved the Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope (NEO Surveyor) to move to the next phase of mission development after a successful mission review, authorizing the mission to move forward into Preliminary Design (known as Key Decision Point- B).…

Article3 years ago