planetary defense

B612 launches Schweickart Prize on 20th Anniversary

This past Asteroid Day (observed on June 30th worldwide) we celebrated B612’s 20th Anniversary and the launch of the Schweickart Prize at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The prize, named in honor of renowned Apollo 9 astronaut and B612 co-founder Rusty Schweickart...

Asteroid Institute | DART deflection event with scientists and friends

For 20 years B612 advocated for a deflection technology demonstration mission. Scientists and experts gather, discuss and watch the historic DART impact. On September 26, humanity took an important step forward in our ability to protect planet Earth from asteroid impacts. NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection...

Asteroid Discovery Analysis + Mapping (ADAM) | Project Update by Dr. Ed Lu

The B612 Asteroid Institute’s Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) project continues to make progress. The acronym for our ADAM project has also evolved (replacing Machine with Mapping). This can be summarized by an article in the Financial Times on the need for mapping the...

Hera Mission Funded By Danica Remy

ESA’s Hera Mission funded, humanity is making progress on planetary defense!   Last month, Europe’s space ministers gathered at Space19+ in Seville, Spain and approved ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for construction and launch, as part of the Agency’s broader planetary defense initiatives that aim to protect citizens...

Asteroid Map Fulfills Americans’ Highest Priorities for Space

A recent AP-NORC poll found two-thirds of Americans wanted the US space program to prioritize monitoring asteroids. The poll asked 1,137 American adults “How important is it for the United States space program to do each of the following?” and the top response was “Monitor asteroids,...

FAKE NEWS: Asteroid Threat Debunking

If you read internet news, you may have seen headlines that say “KILLER ASTEROID ON COLLISION COURSE WITH EARTH” or “COULD ASTEROID X HIT EARTH NEXT WEEK?.” Too many sites earn their clicks with fake and fearful headlines about asteroids.  We try to explain that this...

Dr. Ed Lu Interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday

Asteroid Institute Director Dr. Ed Lu was recently featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. Lulu Garcia-Navarro talked to Dr. Lu about the meteor that recently exploded over the Bering Sea. You can listen to the interview and read a transcript of their discussion here....

Today is the Anniversary of Chelyabinsk

Six years ago, a meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia injuring over 1,500 people and damaging 7,000 buildings across six cities. This event caused people around the world to ask: What are we doing about asteroids? The answer is: A whole lot. Scientists at the Asteroid Institute are building detection tools to...

NASA Announces New ATLAS Telescopes

NASA recently announced it is supporting the building of two additional ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) telescopes to be built in the Southern hemisphere. This is good news as it will fill in the gaps since there are regions in the southern sky currently not...