ATLAS Asteroid Tracking System

Why in news?

• The NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) has become first survey capable of searching entire dark sky for near-Earth objects (NEOs), every 24 hours.

About ATLAS:

• ATLAS is a state-of-the-art asteroid detection system. It is operated by NASA.
• It has two existing northern-hemisphere telescopes on Haleakala and Maunaloa in Hawai‘I, U.S.
• Recently, ATLAS has expanded its reach to southern hemisphere by including two additional observatories in Chile and South Africa. It now comprises of four telescopes.
• ATLAS is now capable of searching entire dark sky every 24 hours. Thus, it has become an important asset for NASA’s continuous effort for finding, tracking and monitoring NEOs.

Discoveries of ATLAS:

• ATLAS system has discovered more than 700 near-Earth asteroids and 66 comets.
• ATLAS is specially designed for detecting objects approaching very close to Earth.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART):

• It is world’s first full-scale mission for testing a technology to defend Earth against potential asteroid impacts.
• It was launched in November, 2021, from Space Force Base in California, onboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
• DART was launched to deflect a known asteroid, for slightly changing asteroid’s motion.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), recently seen in news is operated by:

(a) ISRO

(b) NASA

(c) European Space Agency

(d) China National Space Administration

Answer