NASA catalogs thousands of asteroids near Earth
SAN FRANCISCO |
SAN FRANCISCO
(Reuters) - About 1,000 asteroids big enough to cause catastrophic
damage if they hit Earth are orbiting relatively nearby, a NASA survey
shows.In a project known as Spaceguard, the U.S. space agency was ordered by Congress in 1998 to find 90 percent of objects near Earth that are 1 km (0.62 of a mile) in diameter or larger.
The survey is now complete, with 93 percent of the objects accounted for, astronomer Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.
MORE: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/08/us-space-asteroids-idUSTRE7B615O20111208
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