The 1.8-metre PS1 telescope sits in its dome atop Haleakala, Hawaii (Image: Pan-STARRS/University of Hawaii)



Some asteroids are dangerous for the earth. It can damage a city by a single strike. A new telescope has been designed for spotting such potentially dangerous asteroids. Already taken its first test images, the telescope will be able to find space rocks as small as a few hundred meters wide, when upgraded in 2007, with the world’s largest camera.



The telescope is named PS1 telescope. It is the first of four identical instruments in a project called the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). Located in Hawaii, US, it possesses a 1.8-metre mirror mounted on it.



Of a new generation of telescopes, it is the first to have been designed to find small asteroids and comets, the orbits of which bring them close to that of the Earth.



Via: New Scientist