There’s an opportunity for you, yes you, to do your part in asteroid research, and potentially planetary defense. The Daily Minor Planet crowdsourcing project (www.zooniverse.org/projects/fulsdavid/the-daily-minor-planet) allows Net users to scour telescope images for potential moving objects, i. e., asteroids. Now,… Read More »Zooniverse Views, II (Daily Minor Planet)
Now available in JGR-Planets (that’s Journal of Geophysical Research-), for Feb (vol. 131 #2): Chow, I. Brown, P. G. Decameter-Sized Earth Impactors—II: A Bayesian Inference Approach to Meteoroid Ablation Modeling e2025JE009392 2025JE009392 We’re not too worried about the smallest class… Read More »Note, Paper: Bolide Boil Modeled
YouTube is a trash magnet. There, I said it. YouTube gives a platform to incompetents and competents alike, and therefore enables misinformation, disinformation, and outright lying. But every so often, a competent posts content, and YouTube is a distribution mechanism.… Read More »Schwamb “Into the Rubinverse” Lecture
I spoke too soon again on Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy for Feb (vol.138 #1). They’re still still going: Fereoli, G. McMahon, J. W. Interior gravity characterization of small celestial bodies using cylindrical harmonics 12 s10569-026-10281-7 As I’ve said before,… Read More »Note, Paper: Gravity Field Peel-Reveal
I don’t say much about asteroid mining, because mining companies don’t work via peer review and can stay in stealth mode for a while. Still: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/a-private-space-company-has-a-radical-new-plan-to-bag-an-asteroid/Eric Berger, March 18 A private space company has a radical new plan to bag… Read More »TransAstra Astero-Plan (…Ars Markup)
https://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/observing/callforproposals/ There’s still time to submit observing bids for NASA’s IRTF (infraRed Telescope Facility). The window for the late-2026 semester (2026B) opened on March 1… and closes April 1, 5pm Hawaii Standard Time. As I’ve mentioned, IRTF is one of… Read More »IRTF Late-2026 Call for Proposals
There’s a mid-month Advances-in Space Research. For 15 Mar (vol. 77 #6): Grabowski, J. A. Bellome, Felicetti, L. A diversity-based strategy for asteroid tour design Pg 7039 .2026.01.075 Narziev, M. Khujanazarov, H. F. Meteoroid streams and associations based on radar… Read More »Note, Paper: Multi-Rock Clock and Track
It’s LPSC time. The 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will be held (in the same Houston area) this March 16-20: https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2026/ Really, the LPSC is the big meeting of the annual calendar in this field. This year, there are… Read More »LPSC 2026- Part I
The Meteoritics & Planetary Science issue for March (vol. 61 #3) is finally up: Dobrică, E. Krot, A. N. Brearley, A. J. Shock metamorphic effects in Itokawa phosphates: A comparison with megaregolith-derived meteorites Pg 351 .70102Seifert, L. B. Erickson, T.… Read More »Note, Paper: Merrillite/Apatite Return Flights Writeup
It’s finally here. After the first paper in February, the two linked papers are now in the new, next (April) issue of J Astronaut Sci. They’re all part of a special collection (a virtual “issue”), “Navigating Asteroid Impact Hazards: Astronautics… Read More »Note, Paper: Hazard Eval Triad (…and Pals)