Which observatories help NASA find 5 new asteroids per day?

Question

I just read the following in the NPR website news article NASA's New 'Intruder Alert' System Spots An Incoming Asteroid.

NASA pays for several telescopes around the planet to scan the skies on a nightly basis, looking for these objects. "The NASA surveys are finding something like at least five asteroids every night," says astronomer Paul Chodas of JPL.

Which telescopes are the "several telescopes around the planet to scan the skies on a nightly basis" that NASA pays?

Also, is it really roughly five new actual asteroids identified per day (almost 2,000 per year), or is that 5 objects detected, and only some small fraction turn out to actually be unique, new objects?

5 per day sounds like a lot.

Answer 1

Given that the article seems to be referring to NASA's Near Earth Object Program, it appears that there are five subprograms scanning the skies:

• Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) (four telescopes: 0.50 m, 0.68 m, 1.00 m, 1.50 m)
• Pan-STARRS (one telescope: 1.80 m)
• LINEAR (two telescopes: 1.0 m (retired), 3.5 m)
• Spacewatch (two telescopes: 0.9 m, 1.8 m)
• NEOWISE (one telescope - WISE: 0.4 m)

According to JPL, CSS and Pan-STARRS are responsible for 90% of new Near Earth Object (NEO) discoveries. LINEAR is responsible for detecting objects one kilometer in diameter or greater, while NEOWISE provides additional measurements from previous WISE targets, so it isn't making new detections, merely follow-up observations.

NASA's statistics show that over 15,000 Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) have been discovered so far, from all programs scanning the sky. In each of the past three years, about 1,500 NEAs have been discovered, most by the five programs listed above. That's roughly consistent with the five-per-day claim. However, it's not yet near 2,000 per year.

Answer 2

Some days there are 10 or more Minor Planet Electronic Circulars announcing new asteroid discoveries or lost asteroid recoveries. The October 30 MPECs included a follow-up observation of 2016 UR36, the same object mentioned in the NPR story. With an arc of only a few days, its orbit remains highly uncertain.