Overview
- The 10th International Asteroid Day on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, highlighted gains in planetary defense while experts warned that sightlines to dangerous rocks remain incomplete.
- NASA’s DART mission proved in September 2022 that a kinetic impact can change an asteroid’s orbit, giving the world a demonstrated technique for deflection.
- A NASA Office of Inspector General report found that astronomers had identified nearly 40,000 near‑Earth objects as of April 2025, but only a fraction are classed as tracked threats large enough to cause regional damage.
- NASA is preparing the Near‑Earth Object Surveyor, a space telescope that uses infrared sensing to spot dark objects, with a potential launch as early as fall 2027 and a goal to find roughly two‑thirds of potentially hazardous asteroids over five years.
- Recent near‑miss episodes, like 2024 YR4’s temporary 3.1% impact probability and the ruling that Apophis poses no impact risk for 100 years, show how faster follow‑up observations and more observing assets can quickly turn alarms into certainty and reduce human risk.