Asteroid Institute researcher Dr. Sarah Greenstreet was featured in Physics Today describing how models and observations of asteroid orbits reveal their dynamic lives.

Photo of Asteroid Bennu (NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona)

In a feature article in Physics Today, Asteroid Institute senior researcher, Dr. Sarah Greenstreet, explains why the solar system is far from a static environment due to the interactions between planets and asteroids. She describes how the gravitational influence of planets over small bodies, particularly those in the solar system’s inner regions, has modified many asteroid orbits in dramatic ways, leading to their different existences. You can read the full article here. 

About Dr. Sarah Greenstreet:

Sarah is a B612 Asteroid Institute senior researcher. Her research interests include near-Earth asteroid orbital dynamics, main-belt asteroid resonances, co-orbital solar system objects, impact and crater formation rates, resonant mechanisms that create asteroids on retrograde orbits, near-Earth object population modelling, near-Earth object candidate follow-up, characterization of objects of interest to NASA and upcoming targets of radar observations, measuring the Yarkovsky effect for near-Earth asteroids, and the asteroid impact hazard threat and possible mitigation techniques. She received her PhD in 2015 from the University of British Columbia.