Asteroid hunters spot more than 27,000 'hidden' space rocks - and some pass 'dangerously' close to Earth

Astronomers and data scientists working with a boost in computer power on loan from Google have discovered 27,500 new asteroids, some perilously close to Earth. Their collaboration hopes to speed up the development of'a comprehensive map of the solar system' needed for'planetary defense,' according to one Harvard astrophysicist, Matthew Holman, who helped develop the asteroid-hunting software. Nearly 1.7 billion points of light, documented in 412,000 infrared images from the US National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) archives, were scanned by the project's novel'killer asteroid'-hunting algorithm. 'This is super important,' as one former NASA astronaut leading the project put it. 'This is the key to protecting the Earth from being hit by asteroids: knowing where all these are.'