ONLINE – General Meeting – September 2021

TAAA’s next general member meeting will be held on Friday, September 3, 2021, and available online. The Main Presentation starts at 6:30 P.M and is open to the public. A Members Only Meeting will follow. Non-members may attend the Main Presentation via Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy/.  Members should attend the meeting via Zoom.

6:30 pm – Main Presentation

Title:  NEO Surveyor Mission: Why Does It Matter?

Presentation:  University of Arizona astronomer and professor Dr. Amy Mainzer will talk about the new NASA mission she is leading; the Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission. NEO Surveyor is an infrared space telescope designed to expand our ability to find, track, and characterize asteroids and comets that may pose a threat to Earth. Objects are considered NEOs if they come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. By identifying these objects when they are decades away, we will potentially be able to mitigate their danger by pushing them out of the way.

Presenter:  Dr. Amy Mainzer serves as the Principal Investigator for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission, an Earth-orbiting satellite that uses infrared sensors to characterize asteroids and comets. She is also leading NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, currently in development, which will carry out a comprehensive survey of the most potentially hazardous NEOs. Dr. Mainzer is currently the Chair of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS), the world’s largest professional society of planetary scientists. She also serves as the Chair of NASA’s Planetary Advisory Committee (PAC). She was the science consultant, co-executive producer, and on-camera host of the PBS Kids television show Ready Jet Go!, which aimed to teach basic physics, Earth science, and astronomy to children ages 3-8. She was in the 2016 documentary, “For the Love of Spock”, directed by Adam Nimoy (Leonard Nimoy’s son) and several episodes of the History Channel’s “The Universe” series.