The European Space Agency’s (ESA) newest planetary defender has opened its ‘eye’ to the cosmos for the first time. The Flyeye telescope temporarily located in the Space Geodesy Centre of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in Matera (Italy), will soon be transported to Monte Mufara, in Sicily, where it will join the global effort to keep watch over the Earth’s skies. The telescope’s ‘first light’ marks the beginning of a new chapter in how we scan the skies for new near-Earth asteroids and comets. Inspired by an insect’s compound eye, ESA and OHB Italia designed Flyeye to capture a region of the sky more than 200 times as large as the full Moon in a single exposure – much larger than a conventional telescope. It will use this wide field of view to automatically survey the sky each night independent from human operation and identify new asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth.
“In the future, a network of up to four Flyeye telescopes spread across the northern and southern hemispheres will work together to further improve the speed and completeness these automatic sky surveys and to reduce the dependence on good weather at any individual site,” says Ernesto Doelling, Flyeye Project Manager. “The earlier we spot potentially hazardous asteroids, the more time we have to assess them and, if necessary, prepare a response,” says Richard Moissl, Head of ESA’s Planetary Defence Office. “ESA’s Flyeye telescopes will be an early-warning system, and its discoveries will be shared with the global planetary defence community.” ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC) will verify any potential new asteroid detections made by the Flyeye telescopes and submit the findings to the Minor Planet Center, Earth’s hub for asteroid observational data. Astronomers will then carry out followup observations to further assess the hazard that the object may pose to our planet.
“The unique optical design of the Flyeye telescope is optimised for conducting large sky surveys while maintaining high image quality throughout the wide field of view,” says Roberto Aceti, Managing Director at OHB Italia. “The telescope is equipped with a one metre primary mirror, which efficiently captures incoming light. This light is then divided into 16 separate channels, each equipped with a camera capable of detecting very faint objects. This enables simultaneous high-sensitivity observations over a large region of the sky.” During operations, Flyeye’s observation schedule will be optimised to consider factors such as Moon brightness and the work of other survey telescopes such as the NASA-funded ATLAS telescopes, the Zwicky Transient Facility and the upcoming Vera Rubin Telescope, using data available from the Minor Planet Center. [IMAGE 3] These images of the sky above the ancient stone hills of Matera in Italy, are more than just a test: they are proof that Flyeye is ready to begin its mission.
Credit: ESA / Pietro Moliterni
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- Observations of asteroid (35107) 1991 VH made using ESA’s Flyeye telescope. These images were acquired on 20 May 2025 during the telescope’s ‘first light’ campaign. This animation was produced using 16 images, each acquired using an exposure of 60 seconds, over a period of approximately 16 minutes. The object’s apparent magnitude at the time of observation was +16.6. The smaller the magnitude, the brighter the object.
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- Observations of asteroid (139289) 2001 KR1 made using ESA’s Flyeye telescope. These images were acquired on 21 May 2025 during the telescope’s ‘first light’ campaign. This animation was produced using 31 images, each acquired using an exposure of 60 seconds, over a period of approximately 33 minutes. The object’s apparent magnitude at the time of observation was +19.1. The larger the magnitude, the fainter the object.
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- Observations of our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, made using ESA’s Flyeye telescope. Andromeda appears so large in Earth’s sky that in angular size it is six times the diameter of the full Moon and it can be seen with the unaided eye in dark skies. For a dedicated astronomical telescope such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, viewing the whole Andromeda galaxy requires stitching together hundreds of individual observations. This Hubble image of Andromeda, for example, took over 10 years and 600 snapshots to make. Flyeye, on the other hand, is a survey telescope designed to see as much of the sky at once as possible, and to rapidly scan for new near-Earth objects. This image of Andromeda takes up just one sixteenth of the telescope’s full field of view. The image was acquired during the telescope’s ‘first light’ campaign by combining 16 exposures, each of 30 seconds.
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- Observations of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) made using ESA’s Flyeye telescope. While the vast majority of near-Earth objects are asteroids, we also know of over 100 near-Earth comets whose orbits bring them close to Earth, and thus tracking comets is also an active part of ESA’s planetary defence activities. Tsuchinshan–ATLAS itself is not a technically a near-Earth comet, but it is currently passing through the inner Solar System and was close enough to Earth be observed by Flyeye during the telescope’s ‘first light’ campaign. The comet’s fuzzy dust tail is visible and clearly distinguishes it from an asteroid. This animation was made using 16 images, each with a 30 second exposure, acquired on 21 May over a period of eight and a half minutes.
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- Observations of asteroid 2025 KQ made using ESA’s Flyeye telescope. These images were acquired on 21 May, during the telescope’s ‘first light’ campaign. 2025 KQ was first discovered just two days earlier on 19 May by the Mt. Lemmon Survey observatory. These images therefore demonstrate the ability of ESA’s Flyeye telescope to conduct rapid follow-up observations of newly discovered near-Earth objects. Follow-up observations allow astronomers to more accurately understand the orbit of the new object and to assess whether it poses any hazard to Earth. This animation was produced using 67 images taken over a period of roughly 15 minutes. Each image was taken with a short 10 second exposure processed using a technique called ‘synthetic tracking’. The method involves stacking the exposures following the motion of the asteroid, as opposed to the background stars. This causes the stars appear trailed, while the asteroid, which is moving relative to the stars, remains round.
