I just wrote an article for IEEE Spectrum (https://spectrum.ieee.org/planetary-defense-killer-asteroids) about my work on some big questions: Is humanity in danger from potentially deadly asteroid impacts? How can we spot them? And how can we protect ourselves?
I work at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory designing spacecraft that can crash themselves into asteroids to prevent them from hitting Earth.
I’ve researched asteroids for years. I was an Instrument Scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) and the Chair of the Geology Discipline Group for NASA’s MESSENGER mission. I have been on five field teams with the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program. And asteroid 6899, Nancychabot, is named after me.
Read my article here: https://spectrum.ieee.org/planetary-defense-killer-asteroids
I am joined by Andy Rivkin, an expert in asteroids and planetary defense, to make sure we can address all your questions.
We will be here for two hours, from 1-3pm ET on June 12.
Proof:
I’m planetary scientist Nancy Chabot, and I study the formation of rocky objects in space, including asteroids that might hit Earth. Ask Me Anything!
byu/IEEESpectrum inspace
17 Comments
How realistic is it that we’ll be mining asteroids in the next 100 years?
I have read that there are some asteroids that are more dense than they are supposed to be, and some people theorize it could be due to an undiscovered natural element with an extremely high atomic weight. I was wondering if these asteroids do indeed exist, and if so is that simply a fringe theory or are some scientists taking it seriously?
Isn’t the the whole entirety of everything in the universe dependent upon gravity? You said anything
Was specific software developed to reduce satellite “noise” from interfering with asteroid detection, or was it discovered not to be an issue?
If we discovered a large asteroid heading toward Earth within 5 years notice, what would the best mitigation strategy be?
Thank you, Nancy, and Andy, for taking the time to answer our questions today!
Your article mentioned that a big challenge from the recent NASA/FEMA exercise was how hard it is to quickly send a spacecraft to get a closer look at a threatening asteroid. From your personal experience facilitating that exercise, what was the most surprising or impactful technical detail you learned about how ready (or not ready) we are to respond quickly, especially when dealing with a fast-moving object like 2024 YR4? How has that insight changed your personal priorities for future missions?
Thanks again for all your amazing work!
1. When I first read your AMA post, I thought it said that your name was Nancy Chatbot. Has anyone ever made that mistake before?
2. How will the cuts to NASA’s budget affect our ability to study potential asteroid threats to the earth?
How will the proposed federal budget cuts to NASA and NSF affect your research, if any? Or your colleagues’ research fields?
Do we ever see asteroids that fly directly at us from outside the solar system? As in, asteroids that don’t orbit the sun? If so, how would we prepare for them?
It seems like the current detection plan involves observing when an asteroid flies near us, then calculating when/where it will do so again.
I don’t think any sizable asteroid will hit our planet or cause sizable damage to the humanity in near future. Why? Is it because universe is expanding and all objects are getting far and far away from each other?
What is the protocol you would follow if you detected an asteroid likely to impact Earth that is too big to alter its course with spacecraft crashing?
Well, how *do* ‘rocky’ objects form in space? I had pictured many objects as formed by slowly collecting dust by gravity. Do they become solid through cold welding?
Thank’s for this AMA! What is your a favorite ‘asteroid movie’ and why?
How impactful is the data from GAIA going to be over the next few years? As far as mapping and simulating our neighborhood. I imagine we can extrapolate from there to model and predict rocky objects, our galaxy’s movement through this universe, the Oort Cloud, and so much more.
What do you expect from the data from upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory? (In general, with relation to your work and in comparison to NEO Surveyor.)
What you personally think 16 Psyche would look like?
Can you mention any unexpected or otherwise interesting things about forming of rocky bodies in space?
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[ESA](/r/Space/comments/1l9q9su/stub/mxf4v5y “Last usage”)|European Space Agency|
|[NEO](/r/Space/comments/1l9q9su/stub/mxf8fvf “Last usage”)|Near-Earth Object|
|[NSF](/r/Space/comments/1l9q9su/stub/mxf9x80 “Last usage”)|[NasaSpaceFlight forum](http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com)|
| |National Science Foundation|
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When it comes to “earth killers” i always hear (and it makes sense to me ..) that if such a object happened to come at the earth from the ‘direction’ of the sun we are pretty much SOL on detecting it until its way to late ?