HSU’s Dr. Patrick Miller to Present at Asteroid Night

The West Texas Science Center presents Asteroid Night, free and open to the general public, on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Hart Auditorium on the ACU Campus. Presenting will be HSU professor Dr. Patrick Miller and Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer at NASA.

A Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Miller also teaches astronomy at HSU and other colleges, both to undergraduate and graduate students. He conducts astronomy research methods courses at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and National Radio Astronomy Observatory. He founded and directs the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC). Through IASC, students make original discoveries of near-Earth objects, Main Belt asteroids, and trans-Neptunian objects using data provided by Pan-STARRS (University of Hawaii), Catalina Sky Survey (University of Arizona), and the Dark Energy Survey (University of Michigan).

Dr. Miller will discuss the basic science of the asteroids then share more about IASC, showing the general public how they can make original discoveries of Main Belt asteroids found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.  

He will also explain how people can make original discoveries of Earth-threatening near-Earth objects and Kuiper Belt objects located out past Neptune at distances 40-times the distance between Earth and the Sun. This is will be part of the Harlow Shapley Lecture Series offered by the American Astronomical Society. 

Johnson is NASA’s first-ever Planetary Defense Officer. He was formerly the Program Executive at NASA Headquarters for the EPOXI Mission, NASA’s Discovery Program of mid-class solar system exploration missions, and for its Near-Earth Object Program, which discovered more than 7,400 near-Earth asteroids, over 80 percent of the total known.He received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal for his work on comet and asteroid missions, and Asteroid 5905 (1989 CJ1) is named for Johnson to recognize his efforts in detecting near-Earth objects. Prior to NASA, he served 23 years in the Air Force.

Johnson’s office has been mandated by Congress to locate 90% of the near-Earth objects with diameters of 140 meters or larger. He will discuss that effort, which includes sky surveys funded by NASA at the University of Hawaii (Pan-STARRS), University of Arizona (Catalina Sky Survey and Spacewatch), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (LINEAR), Lowell Observatory (LONEOS), University of Michigan (Dark Energy Survey), and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NEAT).

The West Texas Science Center is a 501 c(3) Abilene based organization focused on making science and mathematics more interesting to both the general population as a whole and students in particular. The Center alone and in cooperation with other local institutions has presented numerous lectures in the community with outstanding scholars, business leaders and scientists as well as supporting field trips in paleontology and other scientific areas for students in local and area schools.