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The near-Earth object, designated 2010 AB78, was discovered by WISE Jan. 12. After the mission's sophisticated software picked out the moving object against a background of stationary stars, researchers followed up and confirmed the discovery with the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter (88-inch) visible-light telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea.
The asteroid is currently about 158 million kilometers (98 million miles) from Earth. It is estimated to be roughly 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter and circles the sun in an elliptical orbit tilted to the plane of our solar system. The object comes as close to the sun as Earth, but because of its tilted orbit, it is not thought to pass near our planet. This asteroid does not pose any foreseeable impact threat to Earth, but scientists will continue to monitor it.
April, 2009 – NASA Headquarters has approved the development of an enhancement to the WISE science data processing pipeline called NEOWISE. The NEOWISE enhancements will allow scientists to discover new moving objects such as asteroids and comets with WISE and provide information for follow up observations within days of the WISE observations. We will also create a searchable archive that will enable researchers to see whether WISE observed a particular object even if it is not discovered until years later. These enhancements will significantly increase WISE's solar system science capabilities.
expected to find about 100-thousand previously undiscovered asteroids in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and hundreds of new near-Earth asteroids
The possibility of asteroid impact is very real
Aaaannnd it really really works!
Wow, the Nibiru and Asteroid Impact Buffs will be having a field day with WISE.
Its good to have early warning systems.You can never have too many.
I noticed the article states that it expects to find hundreds of previously un-noticed n.e.o.s. So i was curious how many there currently are and found this interesting link.