View source for Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance Project

{{Infobox Nonprofit
| nonprofit_name     = [[Nonprofit_Name::Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance Project]]
| nonprofit_logo     = [[Image:Asteroidjpg.jpg|thumb|350px|<small>''The impact of a kilometer-sized asteroid with the earth, such as the one shown here in an artist's conception impacting off the shore of Southern California, could release an amount of energy equivalent to a million nuclear warheads, leading to the extinction of most large lifeforms on earth.</small>]]
| nonprofit_slogan   = 
| company_type       = [[Company_Type::NPO|Non-Profit Research  Organization]]
| foundation         = [[1994]]
| founder            = Dr. Leslie M. Golden
| location           = Oak Park, [[State_Name::Illinois]] 
|  key_people        = 
| industry           = 
| products           = 
| revenue            = 
| net_assets         = 
| num_employees      = 5
| parent             = 
| subsid             = 
| owner              =
| contact            = encyclogalactica@aol.com
| reference          = 
}}



The '''Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance Project''' (N.E.A.R.) is a world-wide network of amateur astronomers and space scientists involved in the discovery and determination of the orbits of near-earth asteroids or more generally near-earth objects with possible earth-crossing orbits.  It takes advantage of the world-wide network of amateur astronomers who, equipped with modest telescopes with CCD detectors, guidance capability, and personal computers, are able to perform professional quality work in their own backyard observatories, together with professional astronomers at small observatories.  It was developed by astronomer [[Les Golden|Dr. Leslie M. Golden]] while he was a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Its goals are to identify such objects to further the study of space science and to identify those that may be on collision path with earth to avoid catastrophic impact events such as those that led to the Tunguska event in Siberia and the mass extinction associated with dinosaur extinction by employing future avoidance strategies.  N.E.A.R.’s administrative and research offices are in Oak Park, Illinois.