The month of June 2002, 15 years ago, marked the kick-off of six parallel preliminary studies carried out by ESA’s General Studies Programme (GSP) in order to analyse possible asteroid missions. Three of those studies were devoted to in-orbit telescopes for NEO discovery and characterization, other two were devoted to asteroid rendezvous missions and finally one for asteroid rendezvous and impact.

Near-Earth asteroid 3122 Florence will have a close pass by Earth on1 September when it will be at a closest distance of 0.0472 au (18.4 LD), which makes it a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA). This Amor object, named after nurse Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), has an estimated diameter of ~4.35 km and was discovered in March 1981 by S.J. Bus at Siding Spring Observatory.

Asteroid 2012 TC4, discovered five years ago by the Pan-STARRS survey,will come back close to Earth on 12 October 2077.It will fly-by at 44 000 km from the surface, providing a rare chance to carefully observe a small known object during its entire approach to our planet.

Asteroid 2012 TC4is the target of an international observing campaign that will culminate this month during its close fly-by with Earth. The object will safely fly at about 44 000 km from the Earth surface, with no chance of collision with our planet.

Current NEO statistics During the last month the global numbered asteroid catalogue (including main belt asteroid) surpassed the threshold of half million objects. The number of known NEOs surpassed 17 000, thanks to more than 300 discoveries in a single month.

The Spacewatch project, located in Arizona, is probably the oldest of the asteroid survey still active today. They were the dominant discoverers of new asteroids in the ‘gos, and the pioneers of using CCDs to find new NEOs.

For the first time in the history of NEA observations more than 2 000 new NEAs have been discovered in one calendar year, resulting in a monthly average of nearly 170 new asteroids. In addition, 2017 was the fifth year in a row with NEA discoveries above a thousand.

On 10 February 1896 at 09:30 a large fireball appeared in the sky over the Spanish capital, Madrid. The bolide exploded at high-altitude and an air-burst was reported by many observers. Slightly more than one minute after the explosion the shock wave reached the city, causing quite some fear among the population.