Over the past fifty years scientists have discovered that asteroids and comets have collided with the Earth throughout its 4.5 billion year history. The impact of these Near Earth Objects with our planet can be catastrophic and still represents a natural hazard today.
The Near Earth Objects Information Centre is part of the UK Government's response to the Report of the Task Force on Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects. Our aim is to provide the public, educators and the media with accurate, non-sensationalised information. We also submit regular reports to the UK Government on close approaches and newly discovered object that could potentially threaten Earth.
When new observations of an NEO are made, they are submitted to the Minor Planet Centre (MPC) in Massachusetts in the USA. The MPC acts as a clearing house for all new observations. These approved observations are then distributed to the scientific community.
There are two independent centres that use these observations to calculate the risk of any future impacts. One is based in the USA the other in Italy.
In the USA this work is carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Sentry System . Sentry is a highly automated collision monitoring system that continually scans the most current asteroid catalogue for possibilities of future impact with Earth over the next 100 years.
In Italy, the work is carried out by NEODyS , which is based on a continually and (almost) automatically maintained database of near-Earth asteroid orbits.
Potentially hazardous objects are assigned a rating on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale. The scale runs from zero, for an object that poses no hazard, up to ten, for a certain collision with global consequences.
The Near Earth Object Information Centre is operated by a consortium, led by the National Space Centre in Leicester. Additional members of the consortium are Queen Mary and Westfield College, Imperial College, Queen's University in Belfast, the University of Leicester, the Natural History Museum, the Royal Observatory Visitors Centre in Edinburgh, W5 in Belfast and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh.
A major Near Earth Object exhibition is housed at the National Space Centre in Leicester, with smaller regional exhibitions at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, W5 in Belfast and the Natural History Museum in London.
The Centre is advised by an academic network of leading NEO scientists and is administered by the UK Space Agency for the UK Government.