section+3+-+Detection+and+protection

go back to home:tegan imbert **__ Section 3 – detection and protection __** US Department of Defence (USDD) satellites have detected 136 explosions in the upper atmosphere in the period 1975 to 1992. 136 airbursts were detected between 1975 and 1992, an average of 8 impacts each year. Airburst detectors are carried on board Sentinel satellites operating at 38 000km altitude in geosynchronous orbit. They detect heat and infrared radiation to detect the comets. The infrared sensors scan the Earth’s disc every 10 seconds at a wavelength of 2.78 microns. These detectors are linked with a 3.6 meters focal length optical Schmidt telescope.
 * __ Detection __**

The Space watch programme at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona has shown that Near Earth Objects (NEOs) can be detected at some distance from Earth. With larger telescopes the range of detection would be improved. The Space guard programme is there to find possible ways of destroying comets. Space guard would be a system of six 2.5-metre telescopes. There telescopes could together monitor 6000 square degrees of sky each month. After 25 years they should have detected 90% of near Earth asteroids of 1km diameter or greater. The Space guard Survey would give us much more accurate data about small objects in the inner Solar System. It might also detect a meteoroid which is on collision course with our home planet and give us the opportunity to avert global disaster.
 * __ Protection __**