Yes, up until recently. The Vera Rubin observatory will change that quite a bit, and soon. Most observatories and telescopes are currently aimed at deep field (very long exposures of tiny portions of the sky). There are a few surveys meant for transients (supernovae, variables etc) and those are also well suited for near earth objects: look at the Catalina sky survey and the zwicky transient facility. When I was (very mildly) involved, the Vera Rubin observatory expected its first 25% of the mission to be overtaken by observing new near earth objects, even as its mission was to catalog variable stars and spot supernovae and other transients.
Some interesting stories about how these surveys work today and how they will work in ~10 years. Right now, it’s so rare to spot a weird thing in the sky that the alarms are all verified by grad students in graveyard shifts. When the new observatories come online, there won’t be enough grad students in the world :) so it’ll all be ML.
Some interesting stories about how these surveys work today and how they will work in ~10 years. Right now, it’s so rare to spot a weird thing in the sky that the alarms are all verified by grad students in graveyard shifts. When the new observatories come online, there won’t be enough grad students in the world :) so it’ll all be ML.