By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Needham Free Public Library (NFPL) welcomed Dr. Carrie Nugent to discuss Near-Earth Asteroids. This program was a part of the 2024/25 McIver series that is named in honor of Vivian McIver, longtime director of the library.
According to the NFPL’s website, “Carrie Nugent is a planetary scientist and a professor at Olin College, whose research applies new computational techniques to asteroid detection. She is a science communicator, who has published a book, Asteroid Hunters, presented a TED Talk, and hosts Spacepod, a podcast offering an inside look into space exploration.” Those fascinated by her work, as well as asteroids in general, filed into the Library Community Room eager to hear this presentation.
There were five points that Nugent touched upon during her talk: What are asteroids?; Why study asteroids?; A quick tour of things that hit Earth; How much better are we doing than the dinosaurs; and How to find asteroids. As an added spectacle, Nugent brought along three different asteroid fragments that attendees were able to hold and look at.
Before passing the first one around, Nugent explained that these fragments are an excellent example of why she loves studying asteroids. “That is probably the oldest thing you will hold in your hands,” she detailed, “since it is about 4.5 billion years old. Yes, that's billion with a B. Which brings me to my next point that it is literally space that you can hold in your hand. I have friends who study black holes but they can’t hold those in their hands. I think there is something so satisfying about having something from outer space that you can touch and feel and know that it is real. That is yet another reason as to why I love asteroids so much.”
While Nugent touched on many interesting points within this program, one of the most exciting things she discussed was that asteroids are the only natural disaster we have the technology now to prevent. This is because well studied asteroids have predictable orbits and our technology allows the detection of almost all potentially hazardous asteroids.
As the program came to an end, audience members were fascinated with all the information Nugent shared with them. She took some questions at the end and thanked everyone for coming out to talk about asteroids with her on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.
For more information about upcoming events like these happening at the NFPL, please visit their website at www.needhamlibrary.org.
