The European Space Agency is teaming up with the UK’s Faulkes
Telescope Project on space hazards research. ESA’s Space
Situational Awareness (SSA) programme looks for space hazards,
including disruptive space weather, debris objects in Earth
orbit and asteroids that pass close enough to cause concern.
Asteroids – known as ‘near-Earth objects’, or NEOs, since they
cross Earth’s orbit – are a particular problem, as any attempt
to survey and catalogue hazardous asteroids faces a number of
difficulties. They’re often jet black or at least very dark,
they can approach rather too close before anyone sees them, and
they’re often spotted only once and then disappear before the
discovery can be confirmed. ESA is turning to amateur
astronomers to ‘crowdsource’ observations as part of Europe’s
contribution to the global asteroid hunt. “The wider astronomy
community offers a wealth of expertise and enthusiasm, and they
have the time and patience to verify new sightings; this helps
tremendously,” says Detlef Koschny, head