Kelly Fast, current head of NASA’s PDCO (Planetary Defense Coordination Office), explains IAWN (the International Asteroid Warning Network) in a Nature piece (well, Nature Reviews Physics– a Nature title). https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-025-00912-7May Chiao, 05 January 2026 Inside the International Asteroid Warning Network… Read More »Nature Interviews Kelly Fast
Just in the latest Nature issue (vol 649 #8098): https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00188-6Michael Eisenstein, 21 January 2026 Seven technologies to watch in 2026 “Scientists excel at discovering limits — and then pushing beyond them.” The illustrious journal Nature cites the pusher, Vera Rubin.… Read More »To Watch the Watchers?
As I had briefly mentioned: the Catalina Sky Survey, one of Earth’s premiere asteroid detector systems, is hiring an observatory tech (or two): https://arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/4/home/requisition/24868Survey Operations Specialist, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (updated) One prerequisite: you’ll be on a mountaintop, in the… Read More »Catalina Sky Survey Hiring
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
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
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
‘Breaking’: the Vera Rubin Observatory has announced its results on transient detection S251112cm. First detected Nov. 12 by humanity’s gravitational-wave array(s), Vera Rubin had then pursued any optical counterpart at that general location: gcn.nasa.gov/circulars/43257 Rubin imagery begins at Nov. 14.… Read More »Vera Rubin Update (late-Dec ‘25)
The December 2025 Astronomy & Astrophysics (vol. 704) still says “in progress”, but January is already being trickled out. So I’m going to call it for December, and what a month: Peña-Asensio, E. Seligman, D. Z. The interstellar flux gap:… Read More »Note, Paper: Year-End Bender (Pending?)
The January Acta Astronautica was divided into Part A and B, don’t ask me why. Now, Part B (vol. 238, Jan 2026): Otsuki, M. Baba, M. Imada, T. et al. Exhaustive evaluation of microgravity landing dynamics for small body exploration Pg 1-12Ye,… Read More »Note, Paper: P-Defense, B