As part of its Planetary Defense Program, NASA’s Deep Space Network has spotted its thousandth Near-Earth Asteroid after opening the account in 1968
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NASA’s Deep Space Network has achieved a historic milestone by spotting its 1,000th Near-Earth Object (NEO) in the form of an asteroid that recently passed Earth at a distance of about one million miles. The DSN is a network of on-ground spacecraft communication facilities located across three continents to support NASA’s interplanetary missions and is also involved in radio and radar-based observations for exploring the solar system. What is now the DSN was first established back in 1968 alongside NASA, and today it is thought to be at the vanguard of developing deep space communications and navigation tech
Even though the DSN’s primary roles are telemetry, serving as a space command site, and managing radio contact between spacecraft and Earth, it is also home to advanced radio astronomy and mapping tech to study passing asteroids. The latter is accomplished using planetary radar that made its first discovery — an asteroid named 1556 Icarus — all the way back in 1968. These radar examinations are done as part of NASA’s NEO Observations Program, which itself is a part of the Planetary Defense Program. And if that name sounds important, that’s because it is responsible for studying and warning about potentially hazardous bodies like the Bennu asteroid.
Now, the latest discovery by the massive 70-meter deep space antenna is not as exciting or frightening, but it is a great achievement for another reason. The Deep Space Station 14 antenna at the California-based Goldstone Deep Space Complex spotted the project’s 1,000th Near-Earth object in just over fifty years since its establishment. The object in question is a small asteroid with a width of between 65 and 100 feet, passing Earth at a distance of about a million miles. However, more details regarding a possible infernal state or ice-cold nature are yet to be discovered.
NASA’s Deep Space Network has achieved a historic milestone by spotting its 1,000th Near-Earth Object (NEO) in the form of an asteroid that recently passed Earth at a distance of about one million miles. The DSN is a network of on-ground spacecraft communication facilities located across three continents to support NASA’s interplanetary missions and is also involved in radio and radar-based observations for exploring the solar system. What is now the DSN was first established back in 1968 alongside NASA, and today it is thought to be at the vanguard of developing deep space communications and navigation tech
Even though the DSN’s primary roles are telemetry, serving as a space command site, and managing radio contact between spacecraft and Earth, it is also home to advanced radio astronomy and mapping tech to study passing asteroids. The latter is accomplished using planetary radar that made its first discovery — an asteroid named 1556 Icarus — all the way back in 1968. These radar examinations are done as part of NASA’s NEO Observations Program, which itself is a part of the Planetary Defense Program. And if that name sounds important, that’s because it is responsible for studying and warning about potentially hazardous bodies like the Bennu asteroid.
Now, the latest discovery by the massive 70-meter deep space antenna is not as exciting or frightening, but it is a great achievement for another reason. The Deep Space Station 14 antenna at the California-based Goldstone Deep Space Complex spotted the project’s 1,000th Near-Earth object in just over fifty years since its establishment. The object in question is a small asteroid with a width of between 65 and 100 feet, passing Earth at a distance of about a million miles. However, more details regarding a possible infernal state or ice-cold nature are yet to be discovered.
A Milestone Discovery For A Critical Planetary Defense System
As for the discovery process, the DSS-14 antenna was used to send radio waves to the asteroid, whose echoes (or radar reflections) were then recorded to study it. On the basis of an asteroid’s size and distance, these radio techniques can be used to create an image of the celestial body’s surface with great detail, calculate its spin rate, determine its shape, and check whether it has any natural moon. The end goal of the Planetary Defense Program is to perform such analyses in order to detect potentially hazardous objects such as NEOs by studying their size and orbit, and assessing if they pose a threat to Earth.
Once an object is classified as a threat, it is continuously tracked, and if its chances of colliding with the Earth exceed the 1 percent mark in the next 50 years, mitigation strategies are set into motion. The space agency is already developing multiple defense methods if an asteroid is set on a collision course with the Earth. NASA notes that its huge radar system is fundamental to planetary defense efforts as it monitors potentially hazardous bodies and performs in-depth studies to make sure that the Earth is prepared if there are any chances of impact in the near future.
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