A series of tiny devices flew up into space

On February 25, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) launched a suitcase-sized artificial satellite and two tiny telescopes out of the earth to track large meteorites and brightest stars.

NEOSSat, the name of the satellite, will be launched from India's Satish Dhawan Space Center at 12:20 pm on February 25 at GMT (19h20 on the same day in Hanoi), Space reported. After flying up to 800km, the satellite will fly around the globe to track large meteorites in the solar system. It also tracks active satellites and cosmic garbage around the globe. The satellite flies around the earth for 100 minutes.

The launch of the NEOSSat satellite took place after a meteorite plunged into central Russia on February 15. This event led many scientists and politicians to call on governments to enhance their meteorite tracking capabilities.

Illustration of Canada's NEOSSat satellite on earth orbit. (Photo: CSA)

"CSA launches NEOSSat to increase surveillance of nearby meteorites. One of NEOSSat's advantages is that it can track meteorites day and night," said Denis Laurin, a CSA scientist. .

William Harvay, the NEOSSat project manager, said that most of the current tracking devices can only detect meteorites at night, but a satellite in space like NEOSSat will be able to detect meteors on any time of day. In addition, it can monitor the space near the sun, which ground-based telescopes cannot do.

NEOSSat satellite will analyze meteorites to provide scientists with detailed information. Thanks to that, they will know the structure and flight path of any meteor. However, it could not detect small meteorite-like meteorites that fell in central Russia on February 15 or 2012 DA14, the "sky-stone" flying near the earth on February 16.

Two telescopes made by the Space Research Institute at the University of Toronto in Canada will also fly into space with NEOSSat from India's Satish Dhawan Space Center today. With a diameter less than 20cm and a mass of less than 7kg, they will be the smallest telescopes flying in space. Their mission is to watch the brightest stars in the sky.