Why in news?

• NASA’s asteroid monitoring system has been upgraded so that it can scan the entire night sky once every 24 hours for potentially hazardous space rocks.

About ATLAS

• ATLAS is a state-of-the-art asteroid detection system.
• It is operated by University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) for Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) of NASA.
• ATLAS has expanded its reach to southern hemisphere by including two additional observatories in Chile and South Africa. It now comprises of four telescopes.
• It has two existing northern-hemisphere telescopes on Haleakala and Maunaloa in Hawai‘i.
• ATLAS is now capable of searching entire dark sky every 24 hours. Thus, it has become an important asset for NASA’s continuous effort for finding, tracking and monitoring near earth objects (NEOs).