[General] On Approach> Objects Approaching Earth

[David M.]

  

 
New website coming>

 

 

     

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov <mailto:agle at jpl.nasa.gov>

INTERNET ADVISORY: 2009-115                         
                       July 29, 2009

*NASA to Provide Web Updates on Objects Approaching Earth*

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is introducing a 
new Web site that will provide a centralized resource for information on 
near-Earth objects – those asteroids and comets that can approach 
Earth. The "Asteroid Watch" site also contains links for the interested 
public to sign up for NASA's new asteroid widget and Twitter account.

"Most people have a fascination with near-Earth objects," said Don 
Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "And 
I have to agree with them.  I have studied them for over three decades 
and I find them to be scientifically fascinating, and a few are 
potentially hazardous to Earth. The goal of our Web site is to provide 
the public with the most up-to-date and accurate information on these 
intriguing objects."

The new Asteroid Watch site is online at 
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch .

It provides information on NASA's missions to study comets, asteroids 
and near-Earth objects, and also provides the basic facts and the very 
latest in science and research on these objects. News about near-Earth 
object discoveries and Earth flybys will be available and made 
accessible on the site via a downloadable widget and RSS feed. And for 
those who want to learn about their space rocks on the go, a Twitter 
feed is offered. "Asteroid Watch" also contains a link to JPL's more 
technical Near-Earth Objects Web site, where many scientists and 
researchers studying near-Earth objects go for information.

"This innovative new Web application gives the public an unprecedented 
look at what's going on in near-Earth space," said Lindley Johnson, 
program executive for the Near-Earth Objects Observation program at NASA 
Headquarters in Washington.  

NASA supports surveys that detect and track asteroids and comets passing 
close to Earth. The Near-Earth Object Observation Program, commonly 
called "Spaceguard," also plots the orbits of these objects to determine 
if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

 

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