Cheap Astronomy - Dear CA Ep. 112: Getting Closer

Next steps, if we don’t trip first. Hosted by Steve Nerlich.   Dear Cheap Astronomy – How will we find the first evidence of extra-terrestrial life? Well of course, we don’t know – the question is more invitation to review the various options and rank the relative likelihood of those options based on the information we have to hand. So - it’s possible that we’ll first find evidence of intelligent life in the form of an electromagnetic signal of technological origin coming from another star system.   Dear Cheap Astronomy – Are we safe from asteroid impacts now? No, but we are safer. The recent DART mission showed that you can divert the trajectory of an asteroid by impacting it with a fast moving spacecraft. The 2022 DART mission demonstrated that the DART spacecraft’s kamikaze crash moved the asteroid Dimorphous by some tens of metres. Tens of metres won’t save Earth from a collision with an object that’s already closing in – but from sufficient distance such fractional shift could very well modify its trajectory so that it misses.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].