Digital Education Programming Presented by the
Center for Health & Wellbeing
Life in Florida means having to frequently think about the risks posed by natural disasters. But have we thought about the rare, but potentially significant hazardous asteroids colliding with Earth?
Asteroids have collided with our planet for billions of years, and they will continue to do so for billions more. The dinosaurs certainly learned this the hard way 66 million years ago. The good news is humans have telescopes and an astronomy research program to address this natural hazard! With an acute study of the sky, we can find out when, where and how an asteroid might affect Earth—preparing for a future collision in advance. While there is no currently known asteroid with our number on it, we should remain diligent.
In this program, you’ll learn about the human race’s quest to understand and mitigate the impact risk from asteroids, learn about work being done to protect us from these hazards, and how the iconic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico—now managed by the University of Central Florida—is at the forefront of this work.
This program is presented by Dr. Yan Fernandez, astronomer and professor at the University of Central Florida, and is hosted by the Winter Park Health Foundation.
