NASA SCOUT: How the new 'Intruder Alert' system detects incoming asteroids to hit Earth

NASA's new "Intruder Alert" system called Scout detected an incoming asteroid that is near the planet Earth. Fortunately, the scientists said that it won't collide with Earth.

The new tool of NASA named Scout could detect potentially dangerous asteroids. It is like a celestial intruder alert system and scans data from telescopes to determine if there are Near Earth Objects. Once it detected an object, it would calculate whether the planet Earth is at risk. It also directs other telescopes to formulate follow-up observations to assess the risk involves, according to NPR.

Paul Chodas, an astronomer from JPL said that the NASA surveys are finding something like at least five asteroids every night. Most astronomers analyze which new objects that might collide the Earth.

Chodas further said once a telescope found a moving object, all you know is it's just a dot, moving in the sky. No information is provided how far it is and the more the telescopes are pointed at an object, the more data you get. You will also know how big it is and what direction it is headed, according to Chodas.

Meanwhile, JPL's Davide Farnocchia explained that objects can come close to the Earth shortly after discovery, sometimes one day or two days, even hours in some cases. He further explained that the main goal of Scout is to speed up the confirmation process.

RT reports that the asteroid was detected on Maui, Hawaii on October 26 using the NASA-funded Panoramic Survey Telescope & rapid Response System. It was then analyzed by Scout that it went in the direction of the planet earth. On the other hand, miss it by about 500,000 km (310,000 miles).

Asteroids are also referred to as minor planets of the inner Solar System and they differ from comets and meteoroids. The larger asteroids are called planetoids. Most asteroids orbit within the asteroid belt between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. The asteroid belt is approximately having between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids, bigger than 1 km in diameter. There are also millions of smaller asteroids in the belt.