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Forbes
30-06-2025
- Science
- Forbes
In Honor Of World Asteroid Day, A Short History Of Planetary Defense
World Asteroid Day started with a real bang. An artist's illustration of asteroid Bennu On June 30, 1908, an asteroid about 65 meters wide collided with Earth's atmosphere and exploded several miles above Siberia; the force of the blast flattened and burned millions of trees over an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers. Today, the anniversary of the Tunguska blast has become World Asteroid Day: a science holiday co-founded by a rock music legend and an Apollo astronaut. In 2015, Apollo 9 lunar module pilot Rusty Schweickart helped launch World Asteroid Day with astrophysicist and Queen guitarist Brian May. The United Nations officially recognized the event a year later in 2016. Earlier this month, Arizona senator Mark Kelly – also a former astronaut – introduced a Senate resolution that, if passed, would officially recognize June 30 as World Asteroid Day in the U.S. I spoke with Kevin Schindler, resident historian at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, about the origins of World Asteroid Day, the history of planetary defense, and what asteroids can reveal about the history of our Solar System. Discovering the Danger from Outer Space Around 200 years ago, in the 1830s, geologists began to study fossils and figure out that several mass extinctions had wiped out whole ecosystems of species on Earth in the distant past. 'In recent decades, they realized that those weren't necessarily caused by something on Earth, but by something impacting from space – like the Cretaceous Tertiary boundary,' says Schindler. An artist's impression of a giant meteor impact. In the 1960s, geologist Walter Alvarez discovered a thin layer of black clay in rocks around the world. Below the black line, the rocks were rich in fossils; above it, they were nearly barren. The same layer of black clay showed up all around in the world: in rock outcroppings in Italy and New Zealand, and in samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. And it clearly marked a deadly before-and-after moment in Earth's history – one that happened around 66 million years ago. Alvarez suspected that the black clay was something alien; it contained bizarrely large amounts of an element called iridium, which is vanishingly rare here on Earth but more common in asteroids. He began to realize that an asteroid or comet may have slammed into our planet 66 million years ago, kicking off a mass extinction and scattering iridium-rich black dust over the planet like a burial shroud. The pieces came together in 1978 when geophysicists Glen Penfield and Antonio Camargo discovered the outline of a crater hundreds of kilometers wide at the edge of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Its center lies at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Penfield and Camargo named the crater for one of the communities that now lies within its boundaries: Chicxulub Pueblo. Other craters – smaller but still impressive – also make it obvious that our planet has had more than a few run-ins with meteors during its long history. 'And while there's not as much debris floating around in our Solar System as when it was newly-formed, there's still stuff out there,' says Schindler. 'And it's inevitable that at some point that stuff will come back and get us again.' NASA's Asteroid Watch tracks known asteroids and comets in the Solar System, while observatories ... More like Lowell scan the skies for more. From Deep Impact to DART So we've known almost 60 years that asteroids and comets could threaten life on Earth. 'In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a search to look for bodies that specifically could impact Earth,' says Schindler. 'Phase one of all this started with, 'okay, let's look for these bodies that could hit us,' and then a couple decades later is when we got to phase two, 'what can we do about it if we do find these things?'' Strangely enough, it was a pair of high-budget, low-scientific-accuracy Hollywood blockbusters that really brought planetary defense to public attention, according to Schindler. The summer of 1998 featured not just one but two movies about humanity trying to save itself from extinction by blowing up an incoming chunk of space rock. In Armageddon, a wildly-improbable effort by a team of offshore drillers saves Earth from an asteroid impact; in Deep Impact, a similarly-improbable effort fails to save Earth from a comet (so the summer ends in a cinematic tie). Two men in a space suit using a piece of machinery in a scene from the film 'Deep Impact', 1998. ... More (Photo by) 'The good thing about those movies is that, even though they're not scientifically accurate in every way, they certainly built awareness enough to where lawmakers said, you know, we should put some money aside to study this stuff more,' says Schindler. 'Hollywood, in some ways, has helped the cause to learn more.' And, as science fiction often does, Deep Impact and Armageddon provided thought experiments (albeit not super-accurate ones, to put it mildly) for the ideas that would eventually become actual efforts at planetary defense. According to Schindler, theoretical ideas about whether we could destroy an incoming meteor eventually shifted to ideas about just nudging the deadly object off-course. 'This is just something that's really been developed in the last decade or so and – I wouldn't say culminated, but really became well-known with the mission that went up to deflect the moon of an asteroid to see if it was possible,' says Schindler. Artist rendering of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) space probe approaching the ... More asteroid Didymos and its minor-planet-moon Dimorphos. The DART spacecraft aims to collide with Dimorphos in autumn 2022 in order to study the effect of an impact with near-Earth objects. Created on September 13, 2021. (Illustration by Nicholas Forder/Future Publishing via Getty Images) That mission was NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, in which an intrepid little spacecraft flew 7 million miles to crash into the asteroid Dimorphos and knock it off-course. Dimorphos is actually a mini-moon that orbits another, larger asteroid called Didymos. Astronomers at Lowell carefully measured Dimorphos's orbital path around its parent asteroid before and after the impact – and they saw evidence that DART had succeeded in knocking Dimorphos into a different orbit. It's a long, long way from deflecting one tiny asteroid moonlet onto a different path around its parent asteroid to deflecting something the size of the Chicxulub impactor – or even Tunguska – as it's barreling toward Earth. But the consensus seems to be that DART was a good start. 'The biggest thing, I think, was that it is possible. This was a very controlled initial step,' says Schindler. 'This was certainly promising enough that we should keep doing these tests in different sizes of body and different compositions, because depending on what it's made of, a body might react differently to something impacting it.' Fossils of the Early Solar System This illustration depicts the 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer-wide) asteroid Psyche, which lies in the ... More main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Meanwhile, Schindler and World Asteroid Day also want the public to know that asteroids are more than potential threats: they're an orbiting treasure trove of information about the history of our Solar System and even the origins of life. Most asteroids are chunks of rock that coalesced early in our Solar System's history but never grew massive enough to become planets; they're like the seeds of planets that might have been. Others are the debris left behind by collisions between objects in those chaotic early days of the Solar System, when planets were forming and gas giants migrated, scattering lesser objects in their wake. 'They tell us what the early composition was and what a chaotic time it was in the early part of our Solar System,' says Schindler. Those clues are written not just in the chemical and physical makeup of asteroids, but in their orbital paths around the Sun. By studying and modelling how those paths have changed over the years, scientists can reconstruct how asteroids and planets may have interacted. The orbits of modern asteroids are like the 'footprints' of planet formation, migrating gas giants, and long-ago collisions. Today, NASA's Lucy mission is exploring the asteroid belt, getting up close and personal with several of these objects. Meanwhile, NASA's OSIRIS-APEX mission is on its way to study the asteroid Apophis, which will pass close (but not too close!) to Earth in 2029. The surface of asteroid Bennu, as seen by OSIRIS-REX in late 2020, is strewn with boulders. 'And now we are studying planetary systems around other stars. Better understanding our Solar System, we can now look at others and see how typical we are,' says Schindler. 'You don't know that without knowing your own Solar System pretty well, so it really has helped us to learn about, sort of, our heritage, I guess.' World Asteroid Day World Asteroid Day aims to tie all of those things together, promoting awareness of planetary defense but also of the immense scientific value – and maybe monetary value, eventually – of asteroids. At Lowell Observatory, that awareness is hard to escape; the observatory stands just an hour's drive from Meteor Crater – which is exactly what the name suggests, a 213-meter-deep, 1200-meter-wide crater where an object about the size of a Boeing 747 slammed into the desert floor around 50,000 years ago. 'The proximity of Lowell Observatory, where we're studying bodies in space, and Meteor crater, where we've seen the result of one of those bodies hitting Earth – how convenient is that? We're looking at both ends of it, from when it's still up in space to the final product if something like this hits.'
Cision Canada
26-06-2025
- Science
- Cision Canada
B612 Foundation Announces Winner of Prestigious Schweickart Prize: Imperial College London's Jordan Stone Leads Winning Proposal for International Panel on Asteroid Orbit Alteration, Recognized for its Foresight in Planetary Defense
SAN FRANCISCO, June 26, 2025 /CNW/ -- B612 Foundation today announced the recipient of the annual Schweickart Prize, a program that recognizes original student proposals seeking to advance humanity's understanding of and preparedness for asteroid impacts. This year's honor goes to a forward-thinking proposal advocating for the creation of the Panel on Asteroid Orbit Alteration (PAOA), an international coordination body designed to proactively address the emerging risks of unintended asteroid orbit changes resulting from human space activities. "The Schweickart Prize, a program of B612, was established to honor the spirit of innovation and collaborative problem-solving exemplified by Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, whose pioneering work in space has continuously pushed the boundaries of human endeavor and safety," said Danica Remy, President of B612 and Co-founder of Asteroid Day. "This year's winning proposal truly embodies that spirit by anticipating a critical future challenge in space and offering a thoughtful, actionable solution to safeguard our planet." The winning proposal, developed by students Jordan Stone (Imperial College London), Jim Buhler (University of Santiago de Compostela), Youssef Saleh (Cairo University), and Kosuke Ikeya (Imperial College London), highlights the increasing likelihood of human space activities – including asteroid mining, scientific research missions, and even spacecraft malfunctions – inadvertently altering the orbits of near-Earth objects. The creation of the PAOA is proposed as a vital step to mitigate these potential risks. This international body would be tasked with establishing comprehensive scientific, technical, and policy guidelines to manage such risks, ensuring a coordinated and effective planetary defense response as the space industry continues its rapid expansion. "As humanity ventures further into space, the potential for unintended consequences grows," stated Jordan Stone, lead on the winning proposal. "The PAOA can serve as a critical international framework, fostering collaboration among nations and experts to ensure that our pursuit of space exploration and resource utilization is conducted responsibly, without jeopardizing Earth's safety. We are incredibly honored to receive the Schweickart Prize for this timely and essential initiative." The Schweickart Prize recognizes individuals or teams of students whose work demonstrates exceptional foresight and addresses complex issues at the intersection of space exploration, planetary defense, and global cooperation. The award aims to foster innovative solutions that protect our planet and ensure the long-term sustainability of human activities in space. Honorable Mentions: B612 also extends its recognition to the other outstanding proposals that demonstrated significant merit and innovative thinking in addressing critical aspects of planetary defense. This year's honorable mentions include: Asteroid Impact Guidance and Information System, by Chloe Long (University of Colorado Boulder), Anivid Pedros-Faura (University of Colorado Boulder), Rahil Makadia (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) YOSO (You Only Stack Once) for Detecting Unseen NEO Threats, by Nitya Pandey (University of Chile) The official presentation of the physical museum quality prize and the $10,000 USD award will take place at a public ceremony at Lowell Observatory on June 30th, coinciding with Asteroid Day. Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart and B612 President Danica Remy will present the prize in person to Jordan Stone at this special event. The public is warmly welcome to join this special event to celebrate the winners, and also at Meteor Crater. To learn more about the joint Asteroid Day programs at Meteor Crater and Lowell, see here. Additionally, Imperial College London will host an event in the fall to honor Jordan and the team, made possible with financial support from B612. Further details on the winning proposal can be found at Event information for Flagstaff Asteroid Day at Meteor Crater and Lowell Observatory is available on the Asteroid Day Arizona website. About B612 Foundation and the Schweickart Prize The Schweickart Prize, a program of B612, is an annual award to foster a new generation of leaders in planetary defense and to encourage ideas to help protect Earth from potential asteroid impacts. The prize is named after Russell "Rusty" Schweickart, renowned Apollo 9 astronaut, co-founder of the Association of Space Explorers, and co-founder of B612. For more information, visit The founding sponsors who have generously funded the Schweickart Prize program include Anousheh Ansari, Barringer Crater Company, Future Ventures, Geoffrey Notkin, Jurvetson Family Foundation, Meteor Crater, Randy Schweickart and Michelle Heng, and Rusty B. Schweickart and Joanne Keys. Since 2002, B612 has developed tools and technologies to understand, map, and navigate our solar system and protect our planet from asteroid impacts through its Asteroid Institute program and supporting educational programs, including Asteroid Day and the Schweickart Prize. Leadership Circle members, including Laurie Girand and Scott McGregor, William K. Bowes, Jr Foundation, Tito's CHEERS, and Maryann and John Montrym, alongside Founding Circle and Asteroid Circle members and individual donors from 46 countries, support the work financially. For more information, visit or follow on social: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Bluesky.
