Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with NBC News reporter Denise Chow about the Torino scale, a method he developed for categorizing the risks posed by near-Earth objects. “The idea was to be as transparent as possible about what astronomers know,” says Binzel of the idea behind the scale.
Prof. Richard Binzel, creator of the Torino scale that NASA uses to measure the threat of incoming objects, speaks with Brandon Truitt of CBS Boston about his quest to track 2024 YR4, an asteroid that astronomers are closely monitoring to see how close it might come to Earth in 2032. “As we get more and more measurements, we keep tracking the asteroid, that uncertainty window, that broad range of where it could go it's going to shrink and shrink," says Binzel. "Until the Earth falls outside of that pathway, we're going to see these probabilities bounce around."
Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with CNN reporter Ashley Strickland about the trajectory of asteroid 2024 YR4. “YR4 presents a challenge because it is small and headed away. Telescopes on the ground can track it for a few more months. Then we’ll call (the James Webb Space Telescope) into service to track it even further, if needed,” says Binzel. “While certainty for 2024 YR4 missing the Earth is the outcome we expect, it’s not up to us. It’s for nature to decided. In fact, nature already has settled the question. We just don’t know that answer yet. That’s why our tracking efforts continue.”
Prof. Richard Binzel, Prof. Julien de Wit, and Research Scientist Artem Burdanov speak with NBC 10 Boston reporter Matt Fortin about their new asteroid-detecting method that will be used to track the newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 and help protect Earth. “By refining and applying their technique, my colleagues [de Wit and Burdanov] have basically turned the JWST into the most capable asteroid-tracking system in history,” explains Binzel.
In an interview with NBC News reporter Kathy Park, Prof. Richard Binzel, Prof. Julien de Wit, and Research Scientist Artem Burdanov provide insight into astronomer's efforts to learn more about asteroid 2024 YR4. “This is an object that merits tracking by astronomers, merits our attention and that’s simply what we are doing,” says Binzel.
Profs. Richard Binzel, Julien de Wit and Research Scientist Artem Burdanov speak with Boston Globe reporter Sarah Mesdjian about asteroid 2024 YR4 and their work developing a new method to “find and track far-away asteroids that were previously undetectable by using technology they compared to long-exposure images.” Says Binzel: “With improving technology, we are going to be aware of more and more of these objects.” He adds: “It’s a really important learning process what we’re doing right now. So when we find more and more of them, we know how to quickly process them and assess which of them are really worth looking further into.”
Research Scientist Artem Burdanov speaks with Boston.com reporter Molly Farrar about asteroid 2024 YR4. Burdanov and his colleagues recently developed a new detection method that could be used to track potential asteroid impactors and help protect our planet. “We need to observe it more, and then we can make an informed decision,” says Burdanov, “but it’s good that we have telescopes and scientists who can do this type of work and inform the public about the threat.”
Research Scientist Artem Burdanov speaks with WBZ News Radio reporter Chaiel Schaffel about his team’s work developing a new detection method that could be used to track potential asteroid impactors like 2024 YR4 and help protect our planet. Burdanov and his colleagues used the new method to detect “138 asteroids ranging in size from a bus to the size of Gillette Stadium.” Burdanov explains that he and his colleagues "used a clever technique to find asteroids that are hidden in the noise.”
Prof. Julien de Wit speaks with National Geographic reporter Robin George Andrews about how special infrared filters on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can be used to find small asteroids and precisely determine their size. “Asteroids get much brighter in the infrared than in the visible as they move away from Earth, and they are thus easier to detect or track with infrared facilities—JWST being the biggest of all,” says de Wit.
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found “the smallest asteroids ever detected within the main belt, which is a field between Mars and Jupiter where millions of asteroids orbit,” reports Sabrina Lam for The Boston Globe. “With new technology, we can find populations of asteroids that were inaccessible previously,” says Prof. Julien De Wit. “Now we have the capability to be able to study this object further out, predict the orbit with much better accuracy, and decide what to do for potential or possible future impactors.”
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), MIT astronomers have spotted “small space rocks – including some just dozens of feet in length, the tiniest ever discovered in our solar system’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,” reports Robin George Andrews for National Geographic. “This work helps to fill in astronomers’ understanding of the asteroid belt, the wreckage left behind from the inner solar system’s formation—and it’s always nice to spy more of those rocky time capsules for future study,” explains Andrews.
MIT scientists have discovered the smallest asteroids known to exist in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, reports Alfredo Carpineti for IFL Science. “The team of researchers behind this new discovery cleverly reused images from the search for exoplanets,” writes Carpineti. “Stacks of images looking at the same distant star field were used with a technique called “shift and stack”, which aims to highlight possible movement in the foreground, like from an asteroid. They were able to find 138 asteroids in the decameter size range.”
Researchers at MIT have found that “more than 98% of prisons in the United States experienced at least ten days that were hotter than every previous summer, with the worst of the heat-exposed prisons concentrated in the Southwest,” reports Minnah Arshad for USA Today. s
MIT scientists have discovered a complex form of carbon, crucial for life on Earth, outside our solar system for the first time, demonstrating how “the compounds needed for life could come from space,” reports Alex Wilkins for New Scientist. “Now, we’re seeing both ends of this life cycle,” explains Prof. Brett McGuire. He explains that we can see the chemical archaeological record in our solar system in asteroids and on Earth, “and now we’re looking back in time at a place where another solar system will form, and seeing these same molecules there forming. We’re seeing the start of the archaeological record.”
Using the James Webb Telescope, researchers at MIT have found quasars, “some of the brightest objects in the cosmos, adrift in the empty voids of space,” reports Mark Kaufman for Mashable. “This latest cosmic quandary is not just about how these quasars formed in isolation, but how they formed so rapidly,” explains Kaufman.