The February Astronomy & Astrophysics (vol. 694) still says “in progress”, despite it being March 1: de la Fuente Marcos, R. de León, J. Serra-Ricart, M. et al. Basaltic quasi-mini-moon: Characterizing 2024 PT5 with the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias… Read More »Note, Paper: Astrono-bodies & Astrophysics
No, I did not fly to Japan. Here’s the agenda for the 2025 (and inaugural) JAXA planetary defense meeting, in conjunction with the Japan Spaceguard Association: https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/en/researchers/info/files/2024PDSymp_program.pdf Thursday, February 27th: International session(invited) Apophis 2029: Once-per-Millennium Knowledge Opportunity for the Science… Read More »FY2024 Planetary Defense (Spaceguard) Symposium
Wow, the NEOSM mission is staffing up. Again, from Planetary Exploration Newsletter: NEAR-EARTH OBJECT (NEO) SURVEYOR SURVEY SCIENTISTNASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor is a planned mission (launch: September 2027) with a goal of finding, identifying, and characterizing potentially hazardous asteroids… Read More »MORE Small-Bod Jobs
Courtesy of Planetary Exploration News, two job openings: NEAR- EARTH OBJECT (NEO) SURVEYOR ASSISTANT SURVEY SCIENTISTNASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor is a planned mission (launch: September 2027) with a goal of finding, identifying, and characterizing potentially hazardous asteroids in our… Read More »Small-Bod Jobs
Only one hit in PASP (Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) for Feb (vol. 137 #2), but what a paper: Lu, J-Q. Fan, L-L. Cai, M-X. et al. Search Capability for Near-Earth Objects with the Wide-Field Survey Telescope … Read More »Note, Paper: Pacific Deep Dive
Time for another batch of papers from Planetary Science Journal. From 2025 vol. 6 (no issues): Grewal, D. S. Manilal, V. Implications of Differentiated Late Accretion for the Volatile Inventory of the Bulk Silicate Earth art 13 ad9606Nugent, C. R. Tan,… Read More »Note, Paper: Planetary Science Volatile
…and speaking of negative, overhyped asteroids: the object 2024 YR4 will likely NOT cause a catastrophe. Firstly, the odds were never good to begin with: as of this past week, December 2032 impact odds were ~1.5-2 percent. Which is to… Read More »No, 2024 YR4 will NOT kill you
Astronomy & Astrophysics for Jan (vol 693) still says “in progress”- surely a misprint, since Feb is already (partly) up. Oh well, here’s what’s “in progress”: Bourdelle de Micas, J. Perna, D. Fornasier, S. et al. Spectral and photometric characterization… Read More »Note, Paper: Ast & Act
Just announced last week- this year will have two international meetings on planetary defense against impactors. The Japanese space agency (JAXA) is coordinating a meeting, Feb. 27-28. This is in conjunction with the Japan Spaceguard organization, and overlapping (the first… Read More »2025 Planetary Defense Meeting- OTHER Meeting
There’s a briefing on our last (known!) mini-moon (“Temporarily-Captured Flyby”, or TCF), 2024 PT5, in Astrophysical Journal Letters for January 10 (volume 978, issue 2): Bolin, B. Denneau, L. Abron, L-M. The Discovery and Characterization of Minimoon 2024 PT5 L37 … Read More »Note, Paper: Import Report