Insights into Asteroid Geophysics for Planetary Defense and Future Exploration
When
Where
Dr. Ronald Ballouz
Staff Scientist
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
As leftover planetesimals, asteroids preserve a record of the early Solar System, and the various processes that have altered their physical and chemical properties. Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) also pose both a hazard and an opportunity. Their relative velocities with Earth are sufficiently large that an impact by an asteroid larger than a few 100 m would cause a near-global catastrophe. On the other hand, telescopic observations have revealed that asteroids may represent a significant reservoir of rare metals and space-accessible volatiles. The utilization of asteroid resources may enable the future expansion of the human presence outwards into the Solar System.
A critical understudied aspect of asteroid properties is their interior structure, which results from endogenic processes and dictates how exogenic processes modify their shape and surface. In this talk, I’ll report on progress in our current understanding of asteroid interiors from the analysis of data returned by recent and past space missions to small bodies. Then, I’ll discuss how tidal interactions in small body binary systems may be leveraged to probe the interiors of asteroids with modern seismometers. Finally, I’ll discuss a gravity tractor mission concept that would target an NEA binary system to probe asteroid interiors and demonstrate slow-pull mitigation for planetary defense.
Host: Dr. Veronica Bray
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