Asteroid discovered by Carnegie’s Scott Sheppard right before it zooms past Earth

While surveying the sky for distant objects, astronomer Scott Sheppard discovered a new asteroid a little closer to home. Asteroid 2020 YE5 poses no immediate risk, but it will come very close to Earth. The asteroid will zoom past only 437,691 km away from Earth, almost as close as our own Moon. It will be at its nearest on Friday, January 22 at around 9:08 AM EST (14:08 UTC). According to Sheppard, someone with a good backyard telescope could catch a glimpse. 

Why Carnegie scientists are excited to study the asteroid samples from Ryugu

“Dirt” from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu arrived on Earth in the wee hours of the morning on December 6, 2020, courtesy of the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) mission Hayabusa2. The capsule of Ryugu rocks is both the second and largest sample ever successfully recovered from an asteroid, and scientists at the Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory (EPL) can’t wait to pounce on it! 

Postdoc Spotlight: Wan Si Tang Creates Nanocarbon Threads in Search for Clean Energy

In this Postdoc Spotlight, Wan Si Tang discusses the importance of renewable energy technologies and her recent research to more efficiently create new, optically-tunable carbon nanothreads that may change the way future photovoltaic panels are made. Plus, she shares some of her favorite hobbies, advice for future scientists, and what her plans are for her future after her tenure with Carnegie Science.