A Canadian research team unveiled a plan Monday to launch a mini-satellite that will be able to track the skies day and night, and send back early warning of dangerous asteroids approaching Earth.
Currently, all asteroid tracking is done on earth. The sun blocks astronomers' view and they can study asteroids only at night.
But the Canadian-designed NEOSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) is expected to launch in 2010 and its 15 cm-diameter telescope will do 24-hour tracking from space, Canadian Television reported.
NEOSat is the size of a large suitcase and weigh only 60 kilograms. It is designed to provide an early warning of any dangerous asteroids approaching earth.
The NEOSat observation system can observe near the sun and survey a little-known population of asteroids. It can determine distances to near-Earth asteroids using parallax.
The team chose to announce the launch Monday to mark the 100th anniversary of Tunguska Event, when a 50-meter meteorite crashed into a remote region of Siberia, said Dr. Alan Hildebrand of the research team from the University of Calgary.
Tunguska's asteroid devastated more than 7,800 square kilometers and wiped out 60 million trees, with an unleashed energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb.
Hildebrand said there are thousands of asteroids winging through space at least three times bigger than the Tunguska object, and one of them could possibly destroy a major Canadian city.
Source:Xinhua
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