Saturday Evening Astronomy Talks & Telescope Viewing (May 19)

Asteroid Impacts: The Only Preventable Natural Disaster, a talk by Dr. Carrie Nugent, an expert on asteroid hunting

An asteroid impact is the only natural disaster we have the technology to prevent. But prevention takes time, meaning that we need to discover and track near‐Earth asteroids now. This talk will give an overview on asteroids, a few notable asteroid impacts, and ongoing efforts to discover near-Earth asteroids. Dr. Nugent is currently working for GlobalXplorer and will be joining the faculty of Olin College starting in the Fall. She is a TED Senior Fellow, author of "Asteroid Hunters" (Simon and Schuster, 2017), and the host and producer of the popular podcast, "Spacepod," with interviewers with astronomers on a wide range of topics. And last, but not least, asteroid 8801 Nugent has her name on it.

After the lecture, one of our big, historic telescopes, either the 100-inch or the 60-inch, will be opened for attendees to look through. This is contingent on the weather. The number of objects visitors will get to see will depend on the number in attendance. We want everyone to get a chance to look through a famous telescope.