NASA has updated its asteroid monitoring system, which can now scan the entire night sky in its mission to detect incoming space rocks and issue warnings. The latest Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) has been operational since 2017, and the original telescope pair was based in Hawaii; however, this has since expanded to include the Southern Hemisphere, with telescopes in South Africa and Chile aiding in the search for hazardous celestial bodies.
According to the British newspaper "Daily Mail," John Tonry, the principal investigator for ATLAS, stated: "An asteroid that hits the Earth can come at any time and from any direction, so ATLAS is now always in the sky."
While NASA knows the location and orbit of 28,000 asteroids, it is believed that there are thousands more yet to be discovered, which could cause widespread regional destruction if one were to strike the planet. Therefore, the telescope gives NASA a three-week warning.
Experts are working on a range of methods that could deflect or destroy a space rock, but it is estimated that at least six months would be needed for a large rock.
The ATLAS system has now evolved into a four-telescope array, making it the first survey of dangerous asteroids capable of monitoring the entire dark sky every 24 hours.
These telescopes may not be the largest, but together they can image the night sky, enabling the system to provide a 24-hour notice for an asteroid measuring 65 feet across, which is large enough to destroy an entire city.
Larger asteroids, over 330 feet in diameter, can be detected from far out in space, allowing NASA to issue warnings of up to three weeks ahead of time, as these large bodies are capable of causing regional devastation.
An asteroid of this size could potentially produce ten times the level of destruction that occurred when the Hunga Tonga volcano erupted.
Funding for the original telescopes came from a grant in 2013 from NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations program. It is now part of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office and has been operational since 2017. After several years of successful operation at the University of Hawaii, NASA sought funding to build additional telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere.
They had to manage the development of the new telescopes remotely due to Covid-19 and faced delays caused by global supply chain issues.
