National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy “The National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy (Strategy) and the forthcoming National NearEarth Object Preparedness Action Plan (Action Plan) together seek to improve our Nation’s preparedness to address the hazard of near-Earth object (NEO) impacts by enhancing the integration of existing national and international assets and adding important capabilities that are currently lacking. The Strategy and Action Plan build on efforts at the National Aeronautics and […]

Asteroid thermal modeling in the presence of reflected sunlight with an application to WISE/NEOWISE observational data, arxiv.org (Revised version) “As a result, the new analysis finds asteroid diameter and other physical properties that have large differences from published NEOWISE results, with greatly increased error estimates. NEOWISE results have a claimed ±10% accuracy for diameter estimates, but this is unsupported by any calculations and undermined by irregularities in the NEOWISE results.” […]

Introducing Asteroid Day, ESA “The press conference to reveal the events and partners for Asteroid Day 2016 is due to start on Tuesday, 9 February at 1500 CET (1400 UTC). It is being held at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.” Asteroid Day Press Event “Building on the highly successful first-ever Asteroid Day in 2015, organisers, together with the European Space Agency, will announce partners and the addition […]

NASA: Two SLS Launches Likely Needed For $3 billion+ ARM, earlier post “At today’s Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) telecon, I asked Lindley Johnson via Webex “Can you show the chart again that has SLS as a launch option for the ARM spacecraft? Does this mean TWO SLS launches needed – one for ARM and another for crew?” He confirmed that yes, there will be two SLS launches – one […]

NASA Wakes Up: Saving Earth From Killer Asteroids Is A Waste “The answer to the first question should we be monitoring what’s out there is yes, but not with the urgency so many advocate. And to the second question should we be prepping the defenses the answer is not likely. We may get some very smart, very famous people arguing counter to this, but even smart people fall prey to […]

NASA Selects Investigations for Future Key Planetary Mission “NASA has selected five science investigations for refinement during the next year as a first step in choosing one or two missions for flight opportunities as early as 2020. The submitted proposals would study Venus, near-Earth objects and a variety of asteroids. Each investigation team will receive $3 million to conduct concept design studies and analyses.” Venus and a bizarre metal asteroid […]

Earth at risk after cuts close comet-spotting program, scientists warn, The Guardian “The Earth has been left with a huge blind spot for potentially devastating comet strikes after the only dedicated comet-spotting program in the southern hemisphere lost its funding, leading astronomers have warned. The program, which discovered the Siding Spring comet that narrowly missed Mars on Sunday, was shut down last year after losing funding. “It’s a real worry,” […]

NASA’s Efforts to Identify Near-Earth Objects and Mitigate Hazards “NASA has organized its NEO Program under a single Program Executive who manages a loosely structured conglomerate of research activities that are not well integrated and lack overarching Program oversight, objectives, and established milestones to track progress. In addition, NASA is undertaking NEO-related activities not managed by the Program and not sufficiently integrated into ongoing Program activities. Furthermore, NASA lacks formal […]

2014 BA3 Goldstone Radar Observations Planning “2014 BA3 was discovered by the Mt. Lemmon Survey (Arizona) on January 21, 2014. It has an absolute magnitude of 28.3 suggesting a diameter within a factor of two of only 7 meters, but nothing else is known about its physical properties. This object is one of the best candidates ever discovered for NASA’s new Asteroid Robotic Retrieval Mission, so we will try to […]

Chelyabinsk Meteoroid Airburst Event Yields Crucial Data “A team of NASA and international scientists for the first time have gathered a detailed understanding of the effects on Earth from a small asteroid impact. The unprecedented data obtained as the result of the airburst of a meteoroid over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15, has revolutionized scientists’ understanding of this natural phenomenon.” New research shows events like Russian asteroid […]