The number of known NEAs reached the round total of 20 000 at the end oflast month. This group of asteroids is steadily growing at a pace of roughly 160 new discoveries each month, thanks to the work done by the main asteroid surveys.

In recent years, it has become increasingly common for ground-based surveys to discover small objects that seem to be in distant Earth-centred orbits. Most of them turn out to be man-made spacecraft or upper stages of spent rockets residing in Earth’s region.

2016 NA39 is a newly-discovered asteroid that for a few days in mid-July deserved attention. Because of its large size, around one kilometre, it became the highest rated object with possible impacts in the current century, scoring as high as Palermo Scale of —2.6.

March 2021 Newsletter

December 2023 Newsletter