A quick story in the journal Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/china-sets-out-sample-unusual-near-earth-asteroid Dennis Normile China sets out to sample an unusual near-Earth asteroid .z2q2idq Normile describes the Chinese Tianwen-2 mission and its target, the Earth-resonant asteroid (469219) Kamo’oalewa. The asteroid has the unusual property… Read More »Out of Ecliptic, In Patch
Congrats to director Wes Anderson, auteur of (among other things- lots of other things) 2023’s Asteroid City. The actual asteroid numbered 689822, formerly designated 2013 PU10, is now officially asteroid (689822) Anderson.
The Off Nominal podcast, episode 195, features Dante Lauretta talking OREx with the hosts: https://offnom.com/episodes/195 “Dirtiest Thing in the Cleanroom (with Dante Lauretta)” Have a listen.
Tonight, May 16 is the International Day of Light. Organized by UNESCO, SPIE, and IEEE Photonics, we celebrate light and all its wonders it brings to our lives. https://www.unesco.org/en/days/lighthttps://spie.org/community-support/international-day-of-light/idl-resourceshttps://www.dayoflight.org/https://www.lightday.org/about Let’s see… we use telescopes to study celestial objects of all sorts. Those telescopes… Read More »Day of Light, Tonight
…see Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 It’s now Day 5 of a weeklong conference: wrapping up loose ends. Here, the less technical but no less important soft sciences. And posters; lots and lots of posters. Panel Session… Read More »2025 Planetary Defense Conference, Day 5
Early-2025 activity on the mountaintop was largely removing ComCam, and integrating the final LSSTCam onto the telescope. Per my last update, that camera change has happened; time for another post. As observing is getting closer and closer, so too will… Read More »Vera Rubin Update (LATE-April 2025)
Still time to sign up for the European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting, this 23 – 27 June 2025 at University College Cork Cork, Ireland. Early bird registration ends Monday, 28 April 2025. eas.unige.ch/EAS meeting/program.jsp: Symposium S6 23-24 June 2025 The future… Read More »2025 EAS Meeting, Cork
That Robin Andrews is a busy writer: April 16, 2025 Robin George Andrews www.newscientist.com/article/2476805-the-race-to-visit-the-asteroid-making-the-closest-pass-by-earth/ Asteroid (99942) Apophis was, a generation ago, calculated to have a slight chance of hitting Earth, in 2029. At under a kilometer in size, it would… Read More »Apophis Mission Grist
An ‘inhuman’-interest piece in MIT Technology Review: April 14, 2025 Robin George Andrews Meet the researchers testing the “Armageddon” approach to asteroid defense www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/14/1114306/space-nuclear-explosion-asteroid-protection-research/ Don’t accuse me of fearmongering just because I include planetary defense coverage in the wider small-body… Read More »Hammer of the ‘Don
The (formerly threatening) asteroid Apophis will make its (safe) pass by the Earth on April 13, 2029. (No coincidence, the UN has also declared 2029 to be the Year of Planetary Defense.) That means four years to prepare scientific observations,… Read More »Apophis T-4 Years Meeting