NASA just shut down a planetary defence mission that tracks asteroids. Now what?

<https://theconversation.com/nasa-just-shut-down-a-planetary-defence-mission-that-tracks-asteroids-now-what-236515>

"Launched 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 on August 8.

Surveying the population of NEOs is central to the emerging concept of
planetary defence. That is, understanding and mitigating the risk of collision
from asteroids large enough to do significant damage to Earth.

NEOWISE has made fundamental contributions to establishing the knowledge base
for planetary defence, with more than 200 of the 3,000 objects it studied not
known to us previously.

Now at mission end, and commanded by NASA to shut itself down, NEOWISE will
re-enter Earth’s atmosphere before the end of this year. Where does that leave
us with defending our planet?"

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics