Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Learn how we discover near-earth asteroids and the paths they travel in space

Learn how we discover near-earth asteroids and the paths they travel in space

Learn how scientists find and track near-Earth asteroids, which are asteroids that might pass close to Earth's orbit.
JPL/NASA
  • © American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
    A snowflake starts as a dust grain floating in a cloud.
    How Do Snowflakes Form?
    Animated snowflake against a dark background.
  • Encyclopædia Britannica,-Inc.
    The Earth may be less spherical and more football-shaped than you thought.
    How Does the Moon Affect the Tides?
    Graphic of the Earth with two tidal bulges. Blue arrows point to the bulges against a white background.
  • Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
    If some dinosaurs had feathers, does that make them birds?
    How Are Birds and Dinosaurs Related?
    Side-by-side illustration comparing a modern black-and-white bird on the left with a feathered dinosaur, Archaeopteryx, on the right, both with wings spread.
  • Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
    This rock would take out more than just a T. rex.
    How Big Was the Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs?
    Illustration showing a massive asteroid above a city map with a dinosaur silhouette for scale, highlighting the asteroid's size compared to major urban areas.
  • © Massachusetts Institute of Technology (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
    Using paintball clouds to deflect asteroids.
    Observe how paintball clouds enhance the albedo of asteroid leading to its deflection
    Observe how paintball clouds enhance the albedo of asteroid leading to its deflection
  • Created and produced by QA International. © QA International, 2010. All rights reserved. www.qa-international.com
    Meteorites are fragments of debris from the asteroid belt that penetrate Earth's atmosphere and reach its surface.
    Overview of meteorites and their impact on the earth
    Overview of meteorites and their impact on the earth
  • Goddard Space Flight Center GSFC/NASA
    Captured on October 20, 2020, during the OSIRIS-REx mission's Touch-and-Go (TAG) sample collection event, this series of 82 images shows the SamCam imager's field of view as the NASA spacecraft approaches and touches down on asteroid Bennu's surface. The sampling event brought the spacecraft all the way down to sample site Nightingale, and the team on Earth received confirmation of successful touchdown at 6:08 pm Eastern Daylight Time. Preliminary data show the sampling head touched Bennu's surface for approximately five seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back-away burn.
    OSIRIS-REx collecting Bennu sample
    OSIRIS-REx collecting Bennu sample
Related Articles: Asteroid , near-Earth asteroid , Earth impact hazard

News •

Twin gas rings observed around a white dwarf • Nov. 10, 2026, 1:44 PM ET (Nature)

Transcript

How do we spot Near-Earth asteroids?

To start, survey telescopes scan the sky. When multiple pictures of the same spot show a speck that's moving, computers automatically check it against a database of known objects. If there's no match, it gets added to a list of objects to confirm. And if it looks like it'll pass very close to us, we give it top priority.

Then it's time to call in reinforcements! More astronomers - from NASA, other institutions, and even the amateur community - submit additional observations.

Each new data point helps refine the projected path, and this asteroid is going to fly right on by.

All the info will be posted online so it can continue to be tracked and monitored.

Nice work, Planetary Defense team -- keep watching the skies!
Last Modification: