How important is it to detect deadly asteroids before they hit your planet? Ask any dinosaur. Oops, wait … you also need a way to redirect them, but interest in finding them has recently increased with a new privately funded program called Asteroid Institute.
Using an open-source cloud platform known as ADAM – Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping, the approved program has already discovered 104 new asteroids and plotted their orbits, along with the B612 program, among others, including the University of Washington.
The funny thing is that the institute itself does not acquire any picture. Instead, it uses new techniques to search through previously available optical records to detect previously unseen asteroids and calculate their trajectory.
You’d be surprised how many more data sets are floating around that capture the unknown discoveries for accurate algorithms and computing power. Of course, once you find the next extinct asteroid, you need to decide what to do about it. Laser? Bomb? Gentle push in the distance? Or the hope of creating a deflector beam for an alien obelisk? How do you do that
NASA is experimenting with moving asteroids. If you want to find something for yourself, you may want to check out the existing atlas.