Earth is hit by meteorites every day. Some are harmless, some could be dangerous. But now we have the most advanced tool to discover and predict them, the Vera Rubin Observatory. Will it be enough to predict a hit with enough precision to catch up a meteorite mid-flight? Finding out in this interview.

👉 NOIRLab Interview https://youtu.be/VKrpJODdEM0

🟣 Guest: Ian Chow https://ia-chow.github.io/

📜 Predictions of Imminent Earth Impactors Discovered by LSST https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05587

• 00:00 Intro

• 01:54 Working with Vera Rubin

• 04:33 Early detections

• 14:12 How can we improve

• 18:20 Big threats

• 22:00 New method to identify asteroids

• 27:43 Amateur observations

• 31:52 Current obsessions

• 33:08 Final thoughts

BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 13:39

Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gIOPdaFyjFY

How did the ring galaxies get their weird shape? Could we redirect a comet to hit the Moon? Could Project Orion ever launch? And in Q&A+, how bad did AI hit astronomy jobs?

• 00:00 Intro

• 00:23 [@billionsandbillionsofstars] Can we expect a meteor storm in our lifetime?

• 02:48 [@CynicExtraordinaire] Will Project Orion ever work?

• 05:03 [@PhoboScorpio] Can you power a spaceship with Jupiter?

• 09:48 [@vistotutti6037] Could we redirect a comet into the Moon?

• 12:33 [@EdSceptic-y2e] How did ring galaxies form?

• 13:39 [@ShaanGrilla] How bad the AI is affecting Astro jobs?

• 17:42 Outro

BONUS PART STARTS AT 18:21

Watch here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/K6LbP3Q1iMM

Going to Mars means contaminating it with Earth's life. Most probably, we have already done it with our landers. But it appears, things might not be as bad as Mars could have a natural "built-in" protection against contamination. How does it work? Finding out in this interview.

🟣 Guest: Dr. Corien Bakermans https://altoona.psu.edu/person/corien-bakermans-phd

📜 ‘Water bears’ reveal potential for adapting, protecting Martian resources https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/water-bears-reveal-potential-adapting-protecting-martian-resources

• 0:00 Intro

• 01:48 Fantastic Tardigrades and where to find them

• 03:25 Martian regolith vs life

• 07:13 Earth soil vs Mars regolith

• 09:10 Experimental setup

• 14:49 Contamination risks for Mars

• 17:13 What's next for the research

• 18:21 Sub-zero bacteria

• 25:08 Current obsessions

• 28:56 Final thoughts