Mapping the Sky: Finding asteroids requires a combination of tools - SpaceNews
“One strike can reshape our world, and the only thing that can stop it is science.” Credit: IMAX Those are the opening lines of “Asteroid Hunters,” an IMAX film narrated by Daisy Ridley of Star Wars fame. If the June 17 screening near NASA’s Ames Research Center is any guide, “Asteroid Hunter” achieves its goal of highlighting the threat asteroids pose and the opportunity to veer dangerously toward Earth. At the end of the film, an audience consisting mostly of people from NASA Ames and related organizations discusses the ongoing efforts to search for near-Earth objects (NEOs), asteroids, or comets within about 45 million kilometers of Earth’s orbit. In particular, they expressed concern over the fate of NASA’s NEO Surveyor space telescope. NASA’s 2023 budget proposal released in March called for a cut in the NEO Surveyor space telescope budget from about $143 million in 2022 to less than $40 million in 2023. The budget plan, which would delay the launch of the space telescope by two