When people think of asteroids, they tend to picture rare, civilization-ending impacts like those depicted in movies such as 'Armageddon.' In reality, the asteroids most likely to affect modern society are much smaller. While kilometer-scale impacts occur only every tens of millions of years, decameter-scale (building-sized) objects strike Earth far more frequently: roughly every couple decades. As astronomers develop new ways to detect and track these smaller asteroids, planetary defense becomes increasingly relevant for protecting the space-based infrastructure that underpins modern life, from GPS navigation to global communications. The good news for us earthlings is that a team of MIT researchers is on this space-case. Associate Professor Julien de Wit, Research Scientist Artem Burdanov, and their colleagues recently developed a new asteroid-detection method that could be used to track potential asteroid impactors and help protect our planet. They have now applied this new...
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