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Adventures of an asteroid hunter

1,498,080 views | Carrie Nugent • TED2016

TED Fellow Carrie Nugent is an asteroid hunter -- part of a group of scientists working to discover and catalog our oldest and most numerous cosmic neighbors. Why keep an eye out for asteroids? In this short, fact-filled talk, Nugent explains how their awesome impacts have shaped our planet, and how finding them at the right time could mean nothing less than saving life on Earth.

TED Fellow Carrie Nugent is an asteroid hunter -- part of a group of scientists working to discover and catalog our oldest and most numerous cosmic neighbors. Why keep an eye out for asteroids? In this short, fact-filled talk, Nugent explains how their awesome impacts have shaped our planet, and how finding them at the right time could mean nothing less than saving life on Earth.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Petition your congressional representatives to support NASA. More than 95 percent of near-Earth asteroids have been discovered by NASA-funded surveys. If you feel strongly about this and are a US citizen, you can reach out to your representatives and express your support for NASA to continue the search.

About the speaker

Carrie Nugent

Asteroid hunter

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Carrie Nugent is part of a team that uses NASA's NEOWISE telescope to search the skies for and catalog asteroids.

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NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office

The NASA office concerned with potentially hazardous objects (PHOs), which are defined as the asteroids or comets whose orbits get within 0.05 AU (an astronomical unit, the average distance between the Earth and the Sun) of Earth's orbit and are above a certain size. They are responsible for the early detection of PHOs, tracking and characterizing PHOs, providing timely and accurate communications about PHOs and coordinating the US government planning for a response in the case of an actual impact threat.

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Center for Near-Earth Object Studies

Learn about near-Earth asteroids and comets, and see which objects will be making close approaches to Earth.

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Minor Planet Center

This is the designated archive for positional measurements of asteroids and comets. The Minor Planet Center also determines orbits and decides when a new asteroid has been discovered. The front page has latest stats on asteroid discoveries.

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International Asteroid Warning Network

A United Nations-sanctioned organization of asteroid observers, orbit computers, physical property specialists and other scientists and communications experts that study near-Earth objects.

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Spacepod

Looking for a glimpse into current space research? Each week on this podcast I share a drink with a scientist or engineer who explores space, and we chat about their work.

Episodes having to do with asteroids can be found here.

Learn more

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Petition your congressional representatives to support NASA. More than 95 percent of near-Earth asteroids have been discovered by NASA-funded surveys. If you feel strongly about this and are a US citizen, you can reach out to your representatives and express your support for NASA to continue the search.