Thread by @OU_SPS

Today we’re posting asteroid content to celebrate #AsteroidDay.

In case you missed it this morning, @ESA made a programme as part of @AsteroidDay, which included @StarkeyStardust as a guest. It’s a good place to start on your @AsteroidDay journey.

Another key aspect of asteroid science is in figuring out the danger they pose to life on Earth. The poor dinosaurs owe their demise to a large space rock colliding with our planet but in this article, @monicaGrady discusses what small asteroids could do.
open.edu/openlearn/scie…

Asteroids that pose a risk to Earth are 'near-Earth asteroids' - those objects that are close to our planet. This video includes Prof of Planetary and Space Science, Simon Green, speaking about them after @ajnorton3 talks about ‘A Clockwork Universe’.

If you want to spot a near-Earth asteroid passing Earth then you could use a telescope, like @PIRATEOU, the @OpenUniversity one on Tenerife, part of @OpenScienceLab.

This video by research student @samleejackson shows asteroid #1998OR2 on 29 April 2020.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1256268421190295554

PhD student Sam, @samleejackson, also wrote a brilliant article on @OUFreeLearning explaining more about how he uses the @PIRATEOU telescope to learn more about the surface of asteroids.
open.edu/openlearn/scie…

@esa are also developing a new telescope known as the ‘Flyeye’ thanks to its multiple cameras that will scan a wide field of view of sky nightly looking for near-Earth objects.

Within @OU_SPS we have many people working on different aspects of asteroid science. One of them is Dr Ben Rozitis, a collaborator on @OSIRISREx asteroid sample return mission. Ben developed the thermal model of #AsteroidBennu that the team have used in the mission.

You can read more about Ben’s work on #AsteroidBennu, that allows scientists to learn about visiting the object in space.

open.ac.uk/science/physic…

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/20…

Bennu is deemed one of the most potentially hazardous asteroids for Earth, thought to be on a course to collide with our planet in the 22nd century. Learning more about Bennu may allow scientists to help work out how to move it onto a different course in the future. #AsteroidDay

The @OSIRISREx mission is set to return to Earth in 2023 with a sample of #asteroid Bennu that can be analysed in laboratories around the world.
nasa.gov/osiris-rex

PhD student Ross Findlay, @CosmoMud, wrote about his work on meteorites and how this prepares for the return of samples from asteroids in space.

Here’s the article on @OUFreeLearning.
open.edu/openlearn/scie…

Lecturer @ashleyjking85 has published research preparing for the return of samples of asteroids to Earth (either from @OSIRISREx to Bennu or @haya2e_jaxa to Ryugu).

You can read more in these links:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

For the non-specialists out there, @ashleyjking85, has also written an article for @OUFreeLearning for #AsteroidDay about his work with meteorites and preparing for the return of space rocks by space missions.
open.edu/openlearn/scie…

It's not just asteroids we've sampled in space. The first small object we sampled was a comet!

The NASA Stardust mission returned cometary dust from comet Wild2. @StarkeyStardust (our Public Engagement Officer) wrote about it here (a nice short read).
theconversation.com/looks-like-a-c…

Having spent years working in our @OU_SPS labs analysing pieces of cometary and asteroidal space dust, @StarkeyStardust wrote #CatchingStardust, a book about comets and asteroids, which is great if you're looking for a longer @AsteroidDay read.

amazon.co.uk/Catching-Stard…

Asteroids whizz about the Solar System today, and they’ve done so for billions of years, colliding with planets and Moons to potentially deliver water. One of our researchers, @jessrocks88, now Assistant Prof at @UALPL, looked at this topic with her work.
bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…

Not all #asteroids are in the asteroid belt, some are captured by planets to become moons. One might be Mars’ moon #Phobos set to be visited by JAXA in 2024 to figure out if Phobos is a captured asteroid or the result of a giant impact like our own Moon.
mmx.isas.jaxa.jp/en/

@OU_SPS PhD student @Zoe_Morland is researching Mars’ moon #Phobos to look for biomarkers, to find out if life existed on Mars in the past. She wrote about the conundrum of the origin of Mars’s moons for @OUFreeLearning here.
open.edu/openlearn/scie…

That completes the 2nd of our 3 tweet threads for #AsteroidDay. Later today we’ll be looking into the future to see how our scientists plan to protect us from asteroids, and how we might be able to use them to our advantage. Stay tuned for more and join in the conversation.