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    "story_id": "mp-2026-09-13-018",
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    "headline": "Fifty-Centimeter Telescopes Would Guard the Near Field",
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    "dek": "A white paper pairs a distributed cislunar warning layer with one four-meter deep-search observatory.",
    "summary": "A white paper pairs a distributed cislunar warning layer with one four-meter deep-search observatory.",
    "body_text": "The proposed Nautilus program combines roughly 50-centimeter wide-field telescopes for nearby Earth–Moon objects with a four-meter Quattro imaging unit for faint recovery and distant Solar System surveys. The local layer would classify small natural objects, track selected targets and monitor lunar impacts; the deep layer is projected to reach about magnitude 30 and map the Kuiper Belt–Oort Cloud transition. This is an observatory concept and science case, not an operating network or funded performance result.",
    "why_it_matters": "A white paper pairs a distributed cislunar warning layer with one four-meter deep-search observatory.",
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        "text": "A white paper pairs a distributed cislunar warning layer with one four-meter deep-search observatory.",
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    "tags": [
      "small bodies",
      "planetary defense",
      "observatories"
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  "sources": [
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      "title": "arXiv preprint 2609.10663",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
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    "title": "Fifty-Centimeter Telescopes Would Guard the Near Field",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-09-13T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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