The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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The SSA-NEO system is based on syndicating and federating observation and tracking data provided by a large number of European and international sources.
The key components include:
Data on NEOs are collected from telescopes and radar systems worldwide. Each of these submit observations to the Minor Planet Center (MPC), operated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) at Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, which acts as a central clearing house for asteroid and comet observations.
The measurements collected there are retrieved by the European Small Bodies Data Centre; orbits and miss distances are computed. In case of high-risk impact predictions, the data will be cross-checked with NASA's SENTRY system, operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California, before issuing alerts.