“It’s going to be thrilling—and very stressful—but ultimately, I think we’re going to learn a lot,” says Cristina Thomas, a planetary scientist at Northern Arizona University who leads the observation team for the DART mission.
Read the full article here!
NASA’s latest launch into outer space is going to make an impact. In fact, that’s its entire mission.
It’s all part of a long-term planetary defense strategy to avoid an “Armageddon” scenario, and NAU planetary scientist Cristina Thomas is part of the team studying this event.
Read more here.
Here are a bunch of places where Cristina appeared in media reports over the past couple of weeks:
DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), which is scheduled to launch at 10:20 p.m. PST on Nov. 23 out of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, is NASA’s first planetary defense mission. This mission will demonstrate asteroid deflection via kinetic impact. The goal is to collide with the target to see how the orbit changes. It’s a test run to see if such a plan is feasible should we find an asteroid on a collision course with… Read more
NAU planetary astronomer Cristina Thomas is quoted in this Wired article. Thomas is the leader of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Team (DART) observation working group.
Wired Magazine: How to Build a Spacecraft to Save the World