MillerTime: An Evening with Big Impact!

We spent the evening at Lowell Observatory celebrating Asteroid Day! Events included a scavenger hunt as well as excellent asteroid-themed presentations by actual Lowell scientists. We heard from Lowell researcher Brian Skiff who spoke about his experiences searching for asteroids and other celestial objects over his long career. He is credited as the rediscover of Hermes, a near earth object that was originally discovered in 1937 and was lost until its rediscovery in 2003. We also heard a fascinating talk by Dr. Nick Moskovitz concerning Lowell’s involvement in the NASA DART mission designed to test a technique for diverting a large space rock that would otherwise hit earth. The test involves a spacecraft that will impact the moonlet, Dimorphos, of the asteroid Didymos this coming September. The Lowell Discovery telescope, with analysis by researchers, will help determine “beta” (essentially the amount of detritus of impact) and the effects of the impact on Dimorphos’ spin and orbit around Didymos. Way cool!!!!