Yes, it’s time again for SBAG (NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group), this time the Winter meeting: 34th Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG)January 13–14, 2026 https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/sbagjan2026/technical_program/?session_no=101 Tuesday, January 13, 2026, 8:30 AM8:30 AM Darryl Seligman Early-Career Icebreaker9:25… Read More »2026 Winter SBAG Meeting, 1
Over the weekend, the Pandora space telescope was launched. Pandora is a small, near-infrared telescope, small enough to be built atop a commercial smallsat bus. This smallsat was in turn mated to a commercial, multi-satellite deployer on its launch vehicle;… Read More »Pandora Mission Launched
Holding on to this paper in Nat Commun Earth Environ (vol. 6, 2025) Discenza, M. E. Brunetti, M. T. Molaro, L. et al. Evidence for landslides triggered by impact events on Ceres Art 1042 s43247-025-03119-x Impacts cause craters, no doubt.… Read More »Note, Paper: Bolide Rockslide Writeup
So-so Icarus for Feb 2026 (vol 445): Rider-Stokes, B. G. Wong, A. Y. C. Burbine, T. H. et al. The Noritic mineralogy of V- and S-type objects and the links with asteroid (4) Vesta Art 116844 /j.icarus.2025.116844Castro-Cisneros, J. D. Malhotra,… Read More »Note, Paper: Rock Path Track Math
Good MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society) for January 2026: Volume 545, #1Trigo-Rodríguez, J. M. Grèbol-Tomàs, P. Ibáñez-Insa, J. et al. Assessing the metal and rare earth element mining potential of undifferentiated asteroids through the study of carbonaceous… Read More »Note, Paper: Flying-Mass MNRAS
Just posted on the ol’ arXiv, more engineering than science: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics > arxiv.org/abs/2601.02533Hibberd, A. Eubanks, T. M. Catching 3I/ATLAS Using a Solar OberthSubmitted on 5 Jan 2026 Not only is our object of interest ATLAS from another… Read More »3I High-Speed Flyby Try?
The call is out for the 2026 Schweickart Prize. The Prize awards the best new student idea in planetary defense, and related asteroid studies. CALL FOR STUDENT PROPOSALS: 2026 SCHWEICKART PRIZEhttps://www.schweickartprize.org/ Deadline: February 4, 2026. Information webinars with live Q&A… Read More »Call for 2026 Schweickart Prize
planetarygeomorphology.wordpress.comPlanetary Geomorphology Image of the MonthLobate Forms: Mass Movements Directly Linked to Impact Cratering Processes Craters have rims and floors. Sometimes, the rim collapses back onto the floor. And some of those times, the collapse is flowing and spreading, into… Read More »See Ceres Lee Scree
The purpose of the Roman Space Telescope- if you could boil it down to one- would be cosmology, not small-body science. Yet a wide field of view- at high sensitivity and small pixels- will inherently catch asteroids/comets, without even trying.… Read More »Roman Space Telescope Call(s)
The Winter 2025 meeting of the AAS (American Astronomical Society), Jan 4-8, Phoenix, AZ, concludes soon: https://aas.org/meetings/aas247 Again, my cull of small-body-relevant agenda items. Most of the meeting is general astronomy, not small bodies or Solar System items: https://submissions.mirasmart.com/AAS247/Itinerary/EventsAAG.aspx See… Read More »AAS Winter 2026 Meeting, Three