ASTEROID HUNTERS

What are asteroids, and where do they come from? And, most urgently: Are they going to hit the Earth? What would happen if one was on its way? Carrie Nugent is an asteroid hunter -- part of a group of scientists working to map our cosmic neighborhood. For the first time ever, we are reaching the point where we may be able to prevent a natural disaster born from an asteroid collision.

In Asteroid Hunters, Nugent reveals what known impact asteroids have had: the extinction of the dinosaurs, the earth-sized hole Shoemaker Levy 9 left in Jupiter just a few decades ago, how the meteorite that burst over Chelyabinsk in Russia could have started a war, and unlucky Ms. Anne Hodges—the only person (that we know of) in US history to be the victim of a direct hit. Nugent also introduces the telescope she uses to detect near-Earth asteroids. Ultimately, detection is the key to preventing asteroid impact, and these specialized scientists are working to prevent the unthinkable from happening.

Dr. Carrie Nugent is a scientist that works on discovering and finding asteroids. She works on NASA’s NEOWISE mission, which uses a space-based infrared telescope to discover, track, and characterize asteroids. She is a 2016 TED fellow, and hosts and produces Spacepod, a podcast about space exploration. She even has an asteroid named after her: 8801 Nugent.


TED Talk to be released in March 2017