Spaceguard

The term Spaceguard loosely refers to a number of efforts to discover and study near-Earth objects (NEO), especially those that may impact earth.

Asteroids are discovered by telescopes which repeatedly survey large areas of sky. Efforts which concentrate on discovering NEOs are considered part of the "Spaceguard Survey," regardless of which organization they are affiliated with.

A number of organizations have also raised related discussions and proposals on asteroid-impact avoidance.

The United Kingdom hosts The SpaceGuard Centre which conducts astrometric research (MPC code J26) and is open to the general public daily. [1]

Arthur C. Clarke coined the term in his novel Rendezvous with Rama (1972) where "Project Spaceguard" was the name of an early warning system created following a fictional catastrophic asteroid impact. This name was later adopted by a number of real life efforts to discover and study near-Earth objects. A 1992 US Congressional study produced a "Spaceguard Survey Report" which led to a mandate that NASA locate 90% of near-Earth asteroids larger than 1 km within 10 years. This is often referred to as the "Spaceguard Goal." A number of efforts which receive money through NASA are all considered to be working on the "Spaceguard Project."

The effect of the impact of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 to Jupiter in July 1994 created a greater perception of importance to the detection of near Earth objects. As David Levy stated in an interview "The giggle factor disappeared after Shoemaker-Levy 9." He was referring to the contemporary attitude that extinction level events were so improbable that those advocating for research for detection and possible deflection methods were only paranoid alarmists. The impact of one of its fragments created a giant dark spot over 12,000 km across, and was estimated to have released an energy equivalent to 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (600 times the world's nuclear arsenal). After the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, asteroid detection programs all over the world received greater funding.

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