Ever since we learned that an asteroid slammed into Earth, wiped out the dinosaurs, and changed the course of life on this planet, scientists have wondered if it could happen again. It turns out there is an asteroid, called Bennu, that has a very small chance of colliding with our planet in the year 2182.
But beyond that, Bennu could hold information that would help unlock our solar system’s secrets, like how it began and where life originated. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission launched in 2016 to collect a sample from Bennu. It was successful, and this past fall, the spacecraft safely delivered its asteroid sample to scientists waiting on Earth.
In a new memoir, The Asteroid Hunter: A Scientist’s Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System, Dr. Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx, gives readers a behind-the-scenes account on this high-stakes mission.
Ira talks with Dr. Lauretta, a planetary scientist at University of Arizona in Tucson, about why he chose to study Bennu, what it was like to run such a nail-biting mission, and what Bennu could reveal about our galaxy.
Read an excerpt from The Asteroid Hunter.
Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
673: SciFri Reads ‘The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2023’
672: The Unseen World Of Seaweeds | Should 'Dark Fungi' Species Get Names?
672: How 'Panda Diplomacy' Led To Conservation Success
671: Music’s Emotional Power Can Shape Memories—And Your Perception Of Time
670: Top Science News Stories of 2023 | Solar Panels In Historic Cape Cod
669: Pennsylvania Drug Laws May Limit Syringe Services | These Romance Novels Represent Black Women In Science
668: Flame Retardant From Cocoa Pod Husks | The Oozy Physics Of Oobleck
667: The Military’s Carbon Footprint Is A Hidden Cost Of Defense
666: High Energy Cosmic Ray Detected | These Penguins Are The Masters Of Microsleeping
665: COP28 Climate Conference Ends | Why Are Some People Affected By Seasonal Affective Disorder?
664: A Celebration Of The 2023 Christmas Bird Count
663: Surfing Particles Can Supercharge Northern Lights
662: The (Not So) Easy Guide To Getting To Space
663: The Women Astronomers Who Captured the Stars
662: Quercetin May Cause Red Wine Headaches | Worsening Wildfires Are Undoing Air Quality Progress
661: Speaking Multiple Languages Changes The Way You Think
660: Social Connections Keep Us Physically and Mentally Healthy As We Age
661: Women Were Also Skilled Hunters In Ancient Times
658: An AI Leader’s Human-Centered Approach To Artificial Intelligence
659: COP28 Host Had Plans to Promote Oil and Gas | Researchers Detected Cicada Emergence With Fiber-Optics
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Dairyland Frights
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL