Asteroid names for our Neorockers
The Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WG-SBN) has responsibility, under the authority of the IAU, for the names of small bodies in the Solar System. When a new asteroid is discovered, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) gives it a provisional designation. When the orbit is confirmed, throughout new observations, MPC gets to the object a permanent numerical designation and the
The NEOROCKS newsletter is out!
What better way of celebrating Asteroid Day 2023 than publishing our Final newsletter? Download the Final Edition to find out more about the NEOROCKS results with plenty of scientific details for you and a final section dedicated to explaining project achievements to our Mini-Neorockers. You’ll also see that NEOROCKS has decided to celebrate the legacy of Tumbling Stone, the online monthly magazine
Asteroid Day is approaching, get prepared!
Asteroid Day 2023 is approaching, so…what better time of the year to refresh your asteroid knowledge? Let’s get started with our Introducing Asteroids video and by the end of the month we will get to know all about the scientific results achieved during the project by our Neorockers. Click on the picture below and access our video “Introducing Asteroids”! This video is available
The Paolo Farinella Prize 2023
“From superbolides to meteorites: physics and dynamics of small planetary impactors”, this is the topic for the 2023 edition of the Paolo Farinella Prize. The deadline for submission is set on the 1st of May 2023. The prize is under the patronage of the European Planetary Science Society and it will be awarded during the joint EPSC/DPS (Department for Planetary Science)
OCA Conference on asteroids and impacts
The Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA) presented NEOROCKS at the national “Science Party” that took place in France during the first half of October 2022. The event included conferences, talks, and visits all over the country. Our NEOROCKER Benoît Carry was invited by the city of Villeneuve Loubet to give a talk on asteroid risks. The target audience was represented
Don’t panic and look up!
Have you watched Don’t look up and are you wondering what would happen in real life with a NEO targeting Earth? Our NEROCKER Ettore Perozzi from the Italian Space Agency can help us understand the difference between fiction and reality. On the one hand, rather than relying on manual calculations performed by a single team of astronomers, in real life, interconnected nets
DART, the first mission to deflect an asteroid, has been launched!
Today is an important day in the asteroid world! NASA’s DART mission has been launched to test an asteroid deflection technique, targeting the Didymos binary asteroid system. Today, the European Space Agency is involved too, as the first signals coming from the space craft will be captured by the ESA’s NNO-2 antenna, measuring 4.5 metres across and located in New Norcia, Western
NEOROCKS at Superquark!
Superquark is the most popular and respected scientific outreach TV programme in Italy. It introduces the general public to all sorts of scientific topics explaining scientific facts with an easy to understand language, real footage and renders. On August 25th, the episode looked at the importance of research on asteroids and of space missions that will be launched to deflect their
Let’s hunt asteroids!
Do you think that spotting asteroids is an easy task? Really? Have a go at the game available onto the website of our partner Neospace: https://www.neospace.pl/asteroid-day/. You’ll see 5 pairs of photos found by the Yasutani program and your task will be to identify an asteroid within plenty of stars. Use the 1410 code to log in and have fun! Photo by Greg
Asteroids at the AstroValberg festival
From the 9th to the 11th of August 2021, the AstroValberg departmental festival returns for its second edition. This year's event explores the solar system with a rich programme: night-time walks, sky observation evenings, creative workshops, and many conferences… including the one of our Neorocker, Benoit Carry (Lagrange laboratory of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur -OCA), on "How to