Sentinel telescope to hunt for dangerous asteroids
Sentinel will try to track hundreds of thousands of asteroids in a bid to protect Earth.
(Credit:
B612 Foundation)
Of all the cataclysmic threats facing humanity, the one that could really wipe us off the map — a hit by a truly massive asteroid — gets relatively little in terms of resources.
The B612 Foundation aims to change that with the launch of a space telescope that would try to track half a million asteroids in the inner solar system believed to be larger than the one that hit Russia’s Tunguska in 1908, causing enormous damage.
The Tunguska object’s size and nature remains a matter of debate. But only 1 percent of larger asteroids have been mapped so far, according to B612, which was named after the fictional asteroid home of the Little Prince.
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