Concerned about the possibility of an asteroid hitting the Terra, the Beijing Institute of Technology announced a project called China Fuyan, which uses antennas to track asteroids from miles away. The Chinese newspaper Science and Technology Daily reported that two antennas have already been built in the south of the Asian country, in Chongqing, and should start operating in September.
Learn more about how the asteroids can collide with Earth.
Read more: ‘7335(1989 JA)’: one of the largest asteroids to come close to Earth to date
Asteroids 2020 PN1
2020 PN1 is a very small asteroid whose orbit intersects that of Earth. So, because of its orbit close to that of our planet, NASA’s JPL classifies it as a “near-Earth asteroid” but does not consider it potentially dangerous. That’s because computer simulations did not indicate any imminent possibility of a future collision.
Projeto China Fuyan
The aim of this project is to build a set of more than 20 radar antennas to track space rocks 150 million kilometers from Earth – the same distance from Earth to the Sun. This will be the world’s largest radar system, according to Chinese news sources, with a diameter of between 25 and 30 meters (each antenna).
Long Teng, president of the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the Beijing Global Times news agency that the project will also study the formation of asteroids, as well as being able to track satellites and debris in the Earth’s orbit.
China wants to destroy asteroids
In April, China announced its plans to develop a monitoring system for asteroids that pose a threat to Earth, underscoring the country’s growing space program ambitions.
Wu Yanhua, deputy head of China’s National Space Administration, said in an interview with state television that the country intends to explore ways to destroy the asteroid that puts Earth at risk.
In addition, to test the system, China’s space program will send a spacecraft to the asteroid in 2025 or 2026, study it and change its course, Wu Yanhua added, without providing details on how this would work.
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