Not news, but ESA’s Hera mission to Didymos/Dimorphos after the DART impact has launched and is on track. Based on good performances from all propulsion systems, mission managers expect to encounter the target asteroids earlier than first planned. Arrival is… Read More »Hera Update, Oct 2025
In the current (4 Oct) issue of New Scientist: www.newscientist.com/article/2498319-nasas-asteroid-deflection-test-had-unexpected-and-puzzling-outcome/Alex Wilkins 1 October 2025 NASA’s asteroid deflection test had unexpected and puzzling outcome As one might expect from New Scientist, this is an accessible take on a scientific work. The… Read More »Dimorphos Debris Motion
Referencing the recent Courville et al. 2025 (“Core metamorphism controls the dynamic habitability of mid-sized ocean worlds—The case of Ceres”): The SETI Live podcast by the SETI Institute will record an episode October 2, 2025, at 2:30 pm PDT. In… Read More »Courville Clement Ceres: The Podcast
This Saturday, Sep 27 is Astronomy Day: astronomyday.astroleague.org Organizations around the world will put on promotions and other activities in support of sky appreciation- is there an astronomy club or other entity near you? www.astroleague.org/astronomy-clubs-usa-state/backyardstargazers.com/astronomy-clubs-near-me/www.go-astronomy.com/astro-club-search.htmnightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/clubs/www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-clubs.htmlskyandtelescope.org/astronomy-clubs-organizations/ While you’re at an event… Read More »Astronomy Day 2025
This is already out, but in case you missed it… The solicitation for the 2026 Schweickart Prize has been announced. The Prize, named after Apollo astronaut and B612 Foundation co-founder Rusty Schweickart, is for a graduate student or recent postdoc… Read More »2026 Schweickart Prize Now Open
In the current issue of MIT Technology Review (Sep/Oct, vol. 128 #5): Tereza Pultarova p. 12 Job titles of the future: Satellite Streak AstronomerRobin George Andrews p. 42 Inside the hunt for the most dangerous asteroid ever Yes, we have… Read More »MIT Tech Review Times Two
Yes, we’re in the middle of meeting season. A meeting happened a week and a half ago- in my defense, it was all in Chinese, and that’s not one of my languages. It’s also the third annual Tiandu Forum (“International… Read More »Tiandu (Int’l Deep Space) Meeting 2025
ANNOUNCING THE LAUNCH OF SOLARSYSTEM.VIDEOThe Planetary Research Cooperative is pleased to announce the launch of its community video server that is devoted exclusively to planetary science content – SolarSystem.video: https://solarsystem.video The server uses the federated open-source software Peertube, and the… Read More »New Solarsystem.video Site
Not strictly asteroidal, but some nice background on the Vera Rubin Observatory in Nature Astronomy (vol. 9 #8): Kim, B. Rubin’s Universe 1111 s41550-025-02644-1 Let’s not forget that Rubin has four missions, only one of which is Solar System objects.… Read More »Vera Rubin Understanding
Referencing Taylor et al. 2024: Aug 7 Jonathan O’Callaghan The mysterious ‘dark comets’ prowling our Solar Systemwww.bbc.com/future/article/20250807-a-japanese-spacecraft-is-racing-toward-a-mysterious-dark-comet-to-discover-the-secrets-it-holds The BBC- usually pretty good on technical topics- has a nice writeup of our current state in “dark comets”- asteroids that show nongravitational… Read More »Dark “Comet”… Part Trois