DETECTING SPACE HAZARDS
How the ESA’s Space Situational Awareness programme is tackling dangers in space
Words by Andrew May
© ESA
Threats from outer space: it sounds like science fiction, but at some level Earth has always been vulnerable to themThink of the giant asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Fortunately such occurrences are extremely rare, but there are other natural phenomena – in the form of solar storms – that can strike from space much more frequently.