Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) Colloquium

Asteroids are not just potato-shaped lumps of rock. Instead they are deeply involved in several Big Questions that engage our love of knowledge - the origin and history of the Solar System, the origin of the oceans, the origin of life, and the enabling of technological civilization. But they are also objects of fear. An asteroid killed (most of) the dinosaurs; eventually another will hit Earth and might wipe us out. And lastly, how real is the prospect of asteroid mining, a topic that has been talked about in breathless terms with trillions of dollars in resources claimed in a single asteroid. This talk will inject numbers into all these questions and explain each of them. Whether love, fear, or greed is dominant is up to you.