Europe set up a meteorite monitoring center

The European Space Agency (ESA) has established a data coordination center for meteorite monitoring devices near the earth.

Nicolas Bobrinsky, director of ESA's Space Situation (SSA) program, said that the meteorite crash in central Russia made nearly 1,200 people injured on February 15 show meteorites as a real threat. humanity. Therefore, according to him, ESA must strengthen its ability to track meteorites near the globe. He announced that SSA has opened a new center in Rome, Italy on February 22. The mission of this center is to coordinate the data of ESA meteorite monitoring devices.

Illustration of meteorite in the solar system.

"ESA is also building a telescope that can track a very large area in space. It will operate outside the earth to track dangerous objects , " AFP quoted him as saying.

But Bobrinsky said that the plans that SSA is taking and are still about to do could not help scientists discover small meteorites, such as "sky rocks" that fell to central Russia in mid-February. call European countries a system of six telescope-like telescopes that SSA is making to track meteorites on a global scale.

"The system could detect meteorites three months before it hit the globe. The three-month period was long enough for officials to evacuate people in the area or launch something to the meteorite to deflect the flight. of it, " he said.