We are pleased to announce a School Seminar by Professor Gareth Collins on the topic of: Impact: Earth! The hazard of asteroid impacts and how to avoid future catastrophe.
Abstract:
66 million years ago the age of the dinosaurs was abruptly ended by an asteroid the size of Jersey. The impact formed the 200 km wide Chicxulub crater in today’s Gulf of Mexico. The environmental consequences were extraordinary and widely believed to have triggered the largest mass extinction in 200 million years.
Fortunately, the chances of a repeat of the Chicxulub impact are vanishingly small; essentially all near-Earth asteroids capable of causing a global environmental catastrophe have been detected and are on non-threatening orbits. Phew! But what about smaller objects? Asteroids 50 m—1 km in diameter are more numerous and harder to detect than their larger siblings. Impacts of these objects can cause localised damage and the recurrence frequency is not well known. What risk do these asteroids pose to us on Earth? And is there anything we could do to stop them?
In this talk Professor Gareth Collins will discuss the asteroid impact modelling of the immediate aftermath of this extinction-inducing event and why the Dinosaurs were unlucky to face the 'perfect storm', as well as the broader hazard of asteroid impacts of all scales. He will also look forward to how we might avoid a similar collision in future, as demonstrated by NASA’s DART mission to test asteroid deflection technology.