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Calling (Really Serious) Asteroid Hunters
New Shoemaker NEO Grant Call for Proposals
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/11/19 10:06 CST | 9 comments
I am happy to announce a new call for proposals for The Planetary Society’s Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object (NEO) grant program, which is celebrating its 15th Anniversary. Proposals are due Feb. 4, 2013.
PlanetVac: Sucking Up Planetary Regolith
A New Planetary Society Project
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/10/30 02:27 CDT | 3 comments
Learn about the Planetary Society’s newest project: PlanetVac, with Honeybee Robotics, aims to prototype and test in a huge vacuum chamber a new way to sample planetary surfaces that could be used for sample return or for in situ instruments.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/24 01:14 CDT | 7 comments
Continuing my writeup of notes from last week's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting: presentations on the risks of future asteroid impacts. How much risk do we face, and what are the appropriate actions to take in the face of that risk?
Shoemaker NEO Winner Finds Close Fly By Asteroid
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/10/02 05:54 CDT
Gary Hug used his Shoemaker NEO grant provided camera to find 2012 SY49 which flew by Earth at about two lunar distances last week. The tens of meters wide asteroid is a low-probability possible Earth impactor in the future.
Saving the World: Established 1997
The Shoemaker NEO Grants at 15
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/09/21 01:00 CDT | 2 comments
The Planetary Society Shoemaker NEO grants celebrate their 15th anniversary of helping to find and track near Earth asteroids. Here's a quick review of the program, and updates on our four multiple-grant winners.
Zapping Rocks with Lasers to Save the World
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/06/25 05:59 CDT | 8 comments
The Planetary Society Laser Bees project in Scotland is studying in the lab a potential new technique for deflecting dangerous asteroids: laser ablation.
Hunting Asteroids from a Field in Kansas
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/06/15 06:33 CDT
TPS Shoemaker NEO Grant Winner Gary Hug hunts near Earth objects from his back yard in Kansas. NPR's Morning Edition picked up on this fascinating story.
Update on yesterday's post about Chang'E 2 going to Toutatis
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/15 11:29 CDT | 3 comments
I have a couple of updates on my post from yesterday: confirmation that Chang'E 2 is indeed gone from L2, and more specifics on encounter dates with Toutatis.
Chang'E 2 has departed Earth's neighborhood for.....asteroid Toutatis!?
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/06/14 07:53 CDT | 1 comments
According to a Chinese spaceflight forum, Chang'E program chief scientist Ouyang Ziyuan recently announced that Chang'E 2 has departed the Sun-Earth L2 point and is now en route to asteroid 4179 Toutatis!
Full Free Intro Astronomy Class Now Online
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/05/22 02:57 CDT | 1 comments
Bruce Betts' complete CSUDH Intro Astronomy and Planetary Science class is now available online. Find out how to access it, and go behind the scenes.
More Evidence for Impact Origin for Colombia’s Vichada Structure
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2012/05/08 03:43 CDT
Evidence continues to pile up that the Rio Vichada structure in Colombia is indeed the largest impact structure in South America.
La Sagra Observatory discovers very near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14
Posted by Jaime Nomen on 2012/03/27 05:20 CDT | 3 comments
With a new CCD camera configured to shoot rapid, short exposures bought with a Planetary Society Shoemaker NEO Grant we caught near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14.
New "Snapshot From Space": Defending Our Planet
Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2012/03/06 10:18 CST
A new installment of our "Snapshots" video series examines the threat posed by asteroids on collision courses with our home planet. Emily Lakdawalla explains why it's so important to find, understand and learn to deflect these potential civilization enders.
Lou Friedman: Students design human asteroid mission in Caltech Space Challenge
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/09/19 11:55 CDT
Lou Friedman: Students design human asteroid mission in Caltech Space Challenge
Shoemaker NEO Grant Update: Asteroid discoveries from La Sagra
Posted by Jaime Nomen on 2011/08/22 04:41 CDT
In spite of some bad weather conditions during the first part of this year, the new camera bought with funds from a Planetary Society Shoemaker Near Earth Object grant helped us to discover and confirm ten new near-Earth objects.
LPSC 2011: Day 1: Small bodies
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/03/08 12:28 CST
Here are some of the noteworthy items from the morning's session on "Small Bodies: A Traverse from NEOs to TNOs" and the afternoon's session on "Asteroid Geophysics and Processes: Surfaces and Interiors."
Close approach to Earth turns Apollo into Aten
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/02/08 12:49 CST
Last week we got buzzed by a very small asteroid, something that happens fairly often. But there were several details that made the close approach of asteroid 2011 CQ1 worthy of note.
2010 JL33: How to see an asteroid from quite a long way away
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/01/13 11:42 CST
A terrific set of Goldstone radar images of a good-sized near-Earth asteroids named 2010 JL33 was posted to the JPL website yesterday. They also posted a movie version but something about these pixelated radar image series absolutely begs for them to be displayed as an old-school animated GIF, so I made one.
Planetary Society Researcher Max Rocca Discovers Largest Impact Crater in South America
Posted by Amir Alexander on 2010/02/13 12:00 CST
It was January of 2004 when the elegant curve of the Vichada first caught the attention of geologist Max Rocca of Buenos Aires. Could the course of the river have been shaped by the circular outlines of an impact crater? Rocca decided to find out.
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