NEO Discovery and Follow-Up Surveys

Abstract

The search for near-Earth objects (NEOs) has been ongoing since the 1970s, but sophisticated search efforts, using modern CCD detectors and computer-aided search efforts, have only been in place since the 1990s. While there are a number of important international contributors to the NEO observational program, including the European Space Agency, NASA provides the primary support for the NEO discovery surveys, the follow-up observational activities, and the NEO physical characterizations observations. NASA also provides support for the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, MA, and the NEO Program Office at JPL. Currently, the primary ground-based discovery surveys are the Catalina Sky Survey operation near Tucson, Arizona, and the Pan-STARRS group operating on Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii. NEOWISE, an Earth orbital 0.4-m telescope operating in the near infrared, plans to continue NEO discoveries and physical characterizations through 2015.