The Impact of Asteroids

Submitted by Marlys Schneider
Phone: (907) 474-6287
09/18/03

At 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday Sept. 24, 2003 Jay Huebner, Ph.D., will give an afternoon talk entitled "The Impact of Asteroids". The talk is free and open to everyone and will take place in room 201A of the Natural Science Facility on the UAF campus. There will be a reception for Dr. Huebner at 3 p.m. in the first floor foyer of the Natural Science Facility.

For more information contact the UAF Chemistry Department at 474-5510. The UAF Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Alaska Section of the American Chemical Society are both sponsors of this talk.

Accounts of asteroidal impacts on earth are sprinkled throughout literature, from the Bible to current made-for-TV movies. And Earth herself bears scars from hundreds of such impacts, some over 100 km across. Yet these natural events have been virtually ignored by scientists until recently, perhaps because they are so foreign to our experiences and also because we could not previously do anything about such threats. The evidence is now overwhelming that asteroids have had a significant impact on the evolution of life and the conditions which chemistry which exist on Earth’s surface. The clear implications are that unless we develop and implement technologies to intervene, impacts will again devastate Earth’s surface at as-of-yet unknown times in the future. Modestly funded searches for objects that may eventually collide with Earth are underway. The year 1989 was particularly successful in that 14 "near Earth asteroids" were discovered. It is believed that more than 2000 objects larger than 1 km in diameter cross earth’s orbit. Current space technology is nearly capable of converting these threatening objects into sources of valuable raw materials for use in space industries and for shipment back to earth. Start-up companies are seeking capital for such ventures. This presentation will review this rapidly evolving area.