Asteroid hunter wakes up

The US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) said the asteroid hunting ship had been awakened after two years of hibernation in space, and had just returned to the first images of potential targets.

The NEOWISE, which studies asteroids and comets, provided the first batch of images to prepare for the next mission.

NEOWISE re-exported with a new mission - (Photo: NASA)

Having discovered more than 34,000 asteroids across the solar system during the main mission that lasted from 2010 to early 2011, NEOWISE was activated again in September this year, after 31 months of inactivity.

NASA said NEOWISE 's support was needed in an effort to detect a community of objects near Earth (NEO) that could potentially harm the planet.

This spacecraft uses a 16-inch diameter telescope and infrared camera system to search for anonymous NEOs.

NEOWISE can also support the classification of asteroids for future exploration missions, according to Space.com.