Within the Asteroid family, the Near Earth Objects (NEO)
are bodies whose orbits bring them to proximity with Earth. Occasionally, asteroids’ orbital paths are influenced by the gravitational tug of planets and their paths are altered. Scientists believe stray asteroids or fragments from collisions have crashed into Earth in the past and that these have played a role in the evolution of planet Earth.
Running from 01 January 2020 until 30 June 2023, NEOROCKS tracked and studied NEOs.
How? Cooperation among different teams of expert astronomers and using sophisticated instrumentation and theoretical models.
NEOROCKS scientists studied the NEOs’ dynamical and physical properties.
Why? To determine their orbit and characterise their nature, in particular those that could collide with the Earth.
Find out more about our project and an overview of results in our SUMMARY page. You can also visit our Scientific Outputs and Outreach pages for more details.
You can see who made up the team of NEOROCKERS on our Consortium and Advisory Board pages.
If you are new to all this, please see our Glossary to find out what all the terminology means.
News
-
Asteroid names for our Neorockers
The Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WG-SBN) has responsibility, under the authority of the IAU, for the names of small bodies in the Solar System. When a new asteroid is discovered, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) gives it a provisional
-
NEOCC Newsletter July 2023
The ESA S2P NEO Coordination Centre has released their July Newsletter. You can access it here.
-
NEOROCKS is officially over…
But it doesn’t really end here! You can still access our Scientific Outputs to find out about the important results achieved thanks to three years of international cooperation. In our Final Newsletter, we round things up, summarising some of our main outcomes
-
The NEOROCKS newsletter is out!
What better way of celebrating Asteroid Day 2023 than publishing our Final newsletter? Download the Final Edition to find out more about the NEOROCKS results with plenty of scientific details for you and a final section dedicated to explaining project achievements
-
NEOCC Newsletter June 2023
The ESA S2P NEO Coordination Centre has released their June Newsletter. You can access it here.
-
Asteroid Day is approaching, get prepared!
Asteroid Day 2023 is approaching, so…what better time of the year to refresh your asteroid knowledge? Let’s get started with our Introducing Asteroids video and by the end of the month we will get to know all about the scientific results