ESA telescope launches early warning of falling meteors

The European Space Agency (ESA) will launch the Gaia space telescope to alert early meteorites to Earth.

The BBC on October 20 reported that ESA planned to launch the telescope in November after the meteorite explosion in the city of Cheliabinsk (Russia) on February 15.

The Gaia telescope has an orbital observation function between the Earth and the Sun, which is a "blind" area for terrestrial observatories, so that the appearance of celestial beings can be detected early. Jellies and asteroids are likely to fall to Earth.

Photo: spaceflight101.com

In February, meteorite, about 15 meters in diameter, weighed approximately 11,000 tons, pierced the Earth's atmosphere and exploded at an altitude of 19-24km in the sky of Cheliabinsk and many cities. In the vicinity of Russia's Ural Mountains, the meteorite rain has injured 1,200 people. Later, scientists estimated that when exploded, the giant meteorite above emitted an impulse equivalent to 25 US atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki city (Japan) in 1945.

The explosion has questioned why modern astronomical astronomical observatories, powerful missile defense radar systems have not detected meteorites.

According to the scientific world, the cause is the "blind" ranges for observatories due to the obstruction of the Earth's curve. A telescope observing from space will solve the above limitation and increase the warning ability. In addition, the Gaia telescope also has the task of making three-dimensional maps of the Galaxy Strip and the positions of the stars in it.