NASA is boosting its efforts to defend Earth from potentially dangerous asteroids. The agency announced Monday that it plans to build and launch an asteroid-hunting space telescope as soon as 2024 as part of a new, multi-pronged approach to planetary defense. The yet-to-be-named telescope will use an infrared detector to pick up the heat signatures of small near-Earth asteroids against the cold backdrop of space.

A NASA presentation says the telescope will find 90 percent of asteroids wider than 140 meters that have a chance of hitting the Earth within 10 years. This goal responds to a congressional directive set in 2005. Right now only a third of those asteroids are cataloged, and none pose a threat to Earth for the foreseeable future. However, an impact by one that we haven’t found yet could wreak country-scale destruction and cause more casualties than any natural disaster in recorded history. Even a 50-meter-wide asteroid could destroy a major metropolitan city in the unlikely event of a direct hit; NASA says the telescope will help compute the chances of objects that size hitting Earth within the next 100 years.

"This may prove to be the most important investment ever made by NASA," said Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society in a press statement. "Early detection and deflection of an asteroid on a collision course for Earth could save countless lives. A space-based asteroid-hunting telescope will better equip the world to be prepared for any potential threats."