NASA to Provide Web Updates on Objects Approaching Earth

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-115

NASA to Provide Web Updates on Objects Approaching Earth
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 29, 2009

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is introducing a
new Web site that will provide a centralized resource for information
on
near-Earth objects - those asteroids and comets that can approach
Earth.
The "Asteroid Watch" site also contains links for the interested
public
to sign up for NASA's new asteroid widget and Twitter account.

"Most people have a fascination with near-Earth objects," said Don
Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL.
"And
I have to agree with them. I have studied them for over three decades
and I find them to be scientifically fascinating, and a few are
potentially hazardous to Earth. The goal of our Web site is to provide
the public with the most up-to-date and accurate information on these
intriguing objects."

The new Asteroid Watch site is online at

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch .

It provides information on NASA's missions to study comets, asteroids
and near-Earth objects, and also provides the basic facts and the very
latest in science and research on these objects. News about near-Earth
object discoveries and Earth flybys will be available and made
accessible on the site via a downloadable widget and RSS feed. And for
those who want to learn about their space rocks on the go, a Twitter
feed is offered. "Asteroid Watch" also contains a link to JPL's more
technical Near-Earth Objects Web site, where many scientists and
researchers studying near-Earth objects go for information.

"This innovative new Web application gives the public an unprecedented
look at what's going on in near-Earth space," said Lindley Johnson,
program executive for the Near-Earth Objects Observation program at
NASA
Headquarters in Washington.

NASA supports surveys that detect and track asteroids and comets
passing
close to Earth. The Near-Earth Object Observation Program, commonly
called "Spaceguard," also plots the orbits of these objects to
determine
if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.


2009-115