We are doing our part to protect civilization from devastating asteroid impacts! Our team is part of NASA's congressionally directed effort to find, track, and characterize at least 90 percent of the predicted number of near-Earth Objects (NEOs) that are 140 meters and larger in size - larger than a football stadium. Objects of and above this size are the focus of global search efforts such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Since 2022 we also know that if we find an asteroid on collision course with the Earth we do not have to stand idly by. NASA conducted the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), its first successful planetary defense mission. DART hit its target Dimorphos at roughly 15,000 mph on September 26, 2022. The momentum transferred during such a kinetic impact altered both, the mutual orbit of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos and - to a lesser degree - the asteroid orbit around the Sun. We study the collision between the DART spacecraft and its target asteroid system in order to learn more about how physical properties affect where the asteroid ends up after a kinetic impact. This effort includes the European Space Agency's Hera mission. Someone also needed to make sure no safety concerns arise from changing the heliocentric orbit of the Didymos system. That was us.

Image credit: APL/NASA

Sunset at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Image credit: AURA/Rubin/LSST

Artist impression of DART approaching its target Dimorphos, the moonlet of the larger asteroid (65803) Didymos.
Image credit: NASA/DART

Lost in Space? Or is the Deep Space Network too busy to tell you where you are? Best find your own way through the Solar System! APEX develops X-ray Navigation and Celestial Navigation algorithms that enable autonomous navigation of spacecraft!

Image credit: Johannes Plenio

The International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky (IAU CPS) is an international organization under US leadership tackling multiple issues that arise from the deployment of hundreds of thousands of satellites in Low Earth Orbit. UIUC is one of the founding members of this institution and proud of its contribution to keeping the space environment safe and sustainable.

Image credit: IAU/CPS

A large fraction of the main sequence stars in our galactic neighborhood are believed to be part of double or multiple star systems. Numerous detections of giant planets surviving in such environments suggest that such systems could host potentially habitable exoplanets as well. Could such systems support life as we know it? Determining whether local conditions would allow life to flourish in such environments is challenging, as the amount of light a planet receives from two suns can vary substantially on relatively short timescales. The complex interplay between astrodynamics and a planet's climate has lead to novel concepts such as dynamically informed habitable zones. Our aim is to better understand where and how to find such exotic worlds. And - spoiler alert - it likely does rain on Tatooine...

Artist impression of a potentially habitable world with two suns.