NASA just shut down a planetary defence mission that tracks asteroids. Now what?
- Written by Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University
Artist's impression of NEOWISE spacecraft.NASA/Caltech-JPLLaunched in 2011, NASA’s NEOWISE mission operated in Earth’s orbit until late last week. It detected more than 3,000 near-Earth objects or NEOs – asteroids or comets whose orbits can bring them close to Earth, even with the possibility of a collision. NEOWISE was shut down...





