Russian astronomers hunting asteroids with new telescope in Australia

Four asteroids moving to the Earth were found, which means that the telescope location was chosen successfully, the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) head says.

Russian astronomers have started asteroid search in the southern hemisphere with a new telescope installed in Australia, the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) head told TASS on Tuesday.

“We have installed a 40-centimeter telescope in Siding Spring, an observatory in Australia,” Igor Molotov said, adding that this was the second telescope of the ISON to search the asteroids heading towards the Earth, the second is located in the US.

Four asteroids moving to the Earth were found, which means that the telescope location was chosen successfully. According to Molotov, dangerous asteroids can be detected far away from the planet, but smaller asteroids may be missed.

The ISON is an international project launched in 2001 to detect, monitor and track objects in space currently comprising about 95 telescopes in 37 observatories from 16 countries.

H.Z