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
… see also Part 1 of the Meeting … Wednesday, January 8, 2025, 10:00 AM Mission Updates: Part 110:00 AM Patrick Michel, Hera – ESA10:10 AM Michael Kueppers, Comet Interceptor — ESA10:20 AM Javier Licandro, NEOMIR — ESA10:30 AM Kelsi Singer,… Read More »32nd SBAG, Jan 2025 pt. 2
It’s been too long since I’ve written on the Vera Rubin Observatory, and there’s progress to be seen- dynamic progress. The glass is on the telescope, and a camera too, but it’s the ComCam (Commissioning Camera), an under-populated version of… Read More »Vera Rubin Obs. Update Dec. 11 2024