Dark, Dangerous Asteroids Found Lurking Near Earth

Now you see it: a near-Earth object becomes visible in infrared
(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA)

From New Scientist:

An infrared space telescope has spotted several very dark asteroids that have been lurking unseen near Earth's orbit. Their obscurity and tilted orbits have kept them hidden from surveys designed to detect things that might hit our planet.

Called the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the new NASA telescope launched on 14 December on a mission to map the entire sky at infrared wavelengths. It began its survey in mid-January.

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