THE PLANETARY REPORT JUNE SOLSTICE 2021 VOLUME 41, NUMBER 2 planetary.org ASTEROIDS HAVE BEEN HITTING EARTH FOR BILLIONS OF YEARS. IT’S TIME TO HIT BACK. YOUR PLACE IN SPACE Disasters Aren’t Inevitable Planning Ahead to Protect Our World fragile. The COVID-19 often brings to mind apocalyptic images from BILL NYE OUR WORLD IS Chief Executive Officer pandemic reminds us that we are all in this science fiction, but by studying distant objects JENNIFER VAUGHN Chief Operating Officer together on our planet. When trouble started in that might threaten us, we can indeed prepare COFOUNDERS one part of the world, it quickly touched every for a potential orbital collision. The threat is CARL SAGAN 1934–1996 one of us. real, and we are the first generation of humans BRUCE MURRAY The analogy from pandemic to asteroid able to get ready and be set to deflect an 1931–2013 impact is compelling. A major impact anywhere incoming asteroid. Fundamentally, it will require LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN Executive Director Emeritus in the world would have enormous conse- investment by governments around the world. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman of the Board quences. It would affect every single person Here at The Planetary Society, we’ve been DANIEL T. GERACI Managing Partner & Director, on Earth, either directly or indirectly. Lives advocating for those investments for many Cygnus Investment Partners, Inc. would be lost. Some people would be forced years, and thanks to the support of members President BETHANY EHLMANN to migrate. Economies would slow or even like you, we’ve made progress. Professor, California Institute of Technology; Research Scientist, collapse depending on the impact’s size If there’s one thing we can learn from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Vice President and location. enormous challenges created by the pandemic, HEIDI HAMMEL Executive Vice President, If a potentially disastrous incoming object it’s that we have to work together to protect Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy were identified—one that would impact here, our species. Our world is fragile. We aren’t Secretary JAMES BELL say, 20 years hence—would we work together? invincible, but when we pool our considerable Professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Would governments cooperate or be paralyzed talents, we humans are a force to be reckoned Arizona State University by mistrust? Would science deniers and con- with. Let’s not let an asteroid prove otherwise. Treasurer LON LEVIN trarians carry the day and prevent significant This issue of The Planetary Report highlights President and CEO, GEOshare LLC action? After the catastrophe, would we lend the important things we should all know about JOHN LOGSDON Professor Emeritus, Space a hand to one another, or would rivalries and the threat of incoming asteroids along with the Policy Institute, The George Washington University inequities be amplified? No matter the eventual work we’re doing to defend Earth from such ROBERT PICARDO Actor outcome, we would once again be painfully impacts. We also celebrate the impact (pun BRITNEY SCHMIDT reminded that as Earthlings, we are all affected very much intended) that your membership has Assistant Professor, School of Earth and by forces of nature, whatever they may be. already made on planetary defense efforts and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology A global pandemic is akin to a massive share new ways that you can get involved to DIPAK SRINIVASAN Principal Staff Member, asteroid impact in yet another way. Both could help defend Earth. Let’s go! Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory be prevented if we were to put in enough time, BIJAL “BEE” THAKORE Regional Coordinator for Asia Pacific, effort, and energy—and if we have the right BILL NYE is chief executive Space Generation Advisory Council systems in place. For most of us, contemplat- FILLMORE WOOD officer of The Planetary Society. Vice President and Regional Counsel, ing the effects of an asteroid or comet impact BP, retired ADVISORY COUNCIL BUZZ ALDRIN ROBERT D. BRAUN DAVID BRIN NAGIN COX ON THE COVER: NASA’s DART mission will intentionally crash into the small asteroid Dimorphos in 2022, changing Dimorphos’ orbit around a larger asteroid G. SCOTT HUBBARD named Didymos. The mission will demonstrate a technique that could be used if a future asteroid is found on course to hit Earth. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL GARRY E. HUNT C MARK HUNTER The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published quarterly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 60 South Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA BRUCE JAKOSKY 91101-2016, 626-793-5100. It is available to members of The Planetary Society. Annual dues are $50 (U.S. dollars) for members in the United States as well as RYAN JOHNSON in Canada and other countries. Printed in USA. Third-class postage at Pasadena, California and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Number RYAN KRISER 87424. C Viewpoints expressed in articles and editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers, BEN LAMM or its advisers. ©2021 by The Planetary Society. All Rights Reserved. The Planetary Society and The Planetary Report: Registered Trademarks ® The Planetary ROSALY LOPES Society. Planetfest® The Planetary Society. PETE SLOSBERG TIM SPAHR KEVIN STUBE CONTACT US: The Planetary Society, 60 South Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101-2016; General calls: 626-793-5100; Email: [email protected]; LORNE TROTTIER Internet: planetary.org; Editors JASON DAVIS and DANIELLE GUNN; Contributing Editor KATE HOWELLS; Science Editor BRUCE BETTS; Technical Editor NEIL DeGRASSE TYSON JAMES D. BURKE; Copy Editor NICOLE YUGOVICH; Art Director LOREN A. ROBERTS for HEARKEN CREATIVE; Creative Services ANDREW PAULY 2 | THE PLANETARY REPORT | JUNE SOLSTICE 2021 MEMBERS ON DECK Contents JUNE SOLSTICE 2021 2 Your Place in Space CEO Bill Nye explains how we can defend Earth from asteroids. Disasters Aren’t Inevitable 3 Members on Deck A member recalls how she got Planning Ahead to Protect Our World hooked on planetary defense. A dashcam caught these stills as a meteor exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia in February 2013. YOUTUBE Our Members Kick Asteroid “Someone Is Doing Something About This” 4 by Ellen McSorley 4 In Context IN FEBRUARY 2013, an asteroid blasted through the air over Chelyabinsk, Russia. What two famous 1998 asteroid Thousands of buildings were damaged, and hundreds of people were injured. I asked movies got right and wrong. myself, “How did this go undetected?” In 2017, I was reading an article about Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society, and asked my good friend Google, “What’s The Planetary Society?” Searching through the website and reading about different projects in which the Society was involved, I came upon a page about defending Earth from asteroid impacts. “Wow,” I thought, “someone is doing something about this.” Reading further, I discovered that the Society has the Shoemaker NEO (near-Earth object) Grant program to help amateur astronomers find and track potentially dangerous asteroids. Soon after my discovery, the Society held a fundraiser through Kickstarter for planetary defense. I had the opportunity to be involved in a project that could very well save the world! Asteroid impacts are the 6 one natural disaster about which we can actually do something. 6 Feature Story Since then, I’ve been hooked on planetary defense. In 2020, Will the world rise to the I attended the Day of Action in Washington, D.C., and planetary challenge of asteroid defense? defense was my favorite talking point. I had the opportunity to educate members of Congress about this important mission. 19 Get Involved How you can help defend I’m hoping that at this year’s Day of Action, our planet. I can spark interest in the funding of the NEO Surveyor space telescope so that a disaster like 20 Your Impact the one in Chelyabinsk won’t happen again. Our annual Day of Action connected 145 members and supporters with Want to know more? I highly recommend the their political representatives. video series by Dr. Bruce Betts on defending Earth from asteroids, available on The Planetary Society’s 23 What’s Up? Get ready for a supermoon planetary.org/asteroid-video website at . Hey, it and meteor shower. has dinosaurs! Who could ask for more? 24 Space Art An artist captures the scene ELLEN McSORLEY is a Planetary Society member from a 1908 asteroid impact. and donor from Monmouth County, New Jersey. IN CONTEXT “Just Nuke ’Em!” Planetary Defense in the Movies by Kate Howells THE THREAT OF asteroids or comets is something most people have only seen in movies. To get a sense of the public’s potential misconceptions about planetary defense, we’re taking a look at the two most iconic films in the deadly-rocks-from- space genre: Armageddon and Deep Impact. Here’s what they got right, what they got wrong, and why it matters. Armageddon In Armageddon, an asteroid the size of Texas is detected only 18 days away from a collision with Earth. NASA’s solution is to send a team of experienced oil drillers to land on the asteroid, drill a deep hole, plant nuclear bombs inside it, and blast it into two halves that will pass safely on either side of Earth. Much drama ensues, but eventually, they succeed at blowing the asteroid in two, vaporizing every smaller asteroid that was traveling with it, and returning safely to Earth (minus a few heroic casualties). WHAT IT GOT RIGHT Basically, the only things Armageddon got right are that it’s possible for an asteroid to hit Earth and that what looks like a single asteroid may actually be a group of asteroids bound together gravitationally.