NASA's enhanced ATLAS observatory to scan entire sky for 24 hrs to track killer asteroids

NASA-funded asteroid alert system named Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) has expanded its reach to entire night sky to detect hazardous asteroids hurtling towards Earth. Operated by University of Hawaii's (UH) Institute for Astromy (IfA), ATLAS became operational in 2017 and previously included two rrn-hemisphere telescopes on Haleakalā and Maunaloa. Concerned that asteroids may strike from any direction, collaborators have installed two ditional telescopes in South Africa and Chile.

(Telescope unit in Haleakalā, Maui; im: University of Hawai'i)

'ATLAS is w all sky, all time'

 Explaining reason behind expansion, John Tonry, IfA professor and ATLAS principal investigator said as per University of Hawaii's report-

An asteroid that hits Earth can come at any time from any direction, so ATLAS is w all sky, all time.

two new telescopes located at South Africa's Surland Observing Station and Chile's El Sauce Observatory have w me asteroid alert system capable to scan entire night sky every 24 hours. reason behind choosing se locations was access to sourn part of sky and time difference which allowed observations at night during daytime in Hawaii.  UH first built  ATLAS telescopes under NASA’s Near-Earth Objects Observations Program, and became operational in 2017.

(Telescope unit in Maunaloa; im: University of Hawai'i)

Capabilities of upgred observatory

With recent upgration, ATLAS telescopes can w photograph a chunk of sky 100 times larger than full moon in a single exposure which would allow it to issue a warning 24 hours earlier before approach of a 20-metre wide asteroid. Moreover, it could also provide a warning three weeks before a 100-metre-wide asteroid, capable of widescale destruction hes towards our planet. Scientists say that an asteroid of this scale strikes Earth, it can result in 10 times destruction caused by Tonga volcanic eruption in Pacific Ocean. 

ATLAS system has discovered 700 near-Earth asteroids and 66 comets so far and is specially designed to detect objects that come as close as 3,84,000 kilometers to Earth. Saying that an enhanced ATLAS complements existing ground-based NEO (near-Earth object) search programs, IfA astromer and ATLAS co-principal investigator, Larry Denneau ded as per University's report-

All se systems have different specialties, and toger y are working to keep us safe from hazardous asteroids that could strike anywhere from days to deces into future.

Im: Twitter/@uhmaa