Asteroids and impacts: Should we worry?

An object large enough to make a crater one kilometer in diameter strikes the earth once every 5 000 years, on average. Look up at the night sky and you will see a streak of light as a meteor burns up in our atmosphere.

In a lecture being hosted on 15 June, Dr Robin Catchpole will look at significant past impacts, including the meteor from 1906, which demolished 40 million trees. He will examine the origins of these objects and will reveal what we are doing to predict impacts and prevent them.

Dr Catchpole currently works at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University after retiring as the Senior Astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in September 2003.

He spent 24 years working in South Africa, having obtained his PhD from UCT.

The lecture takes place on Thursday, 15 June, from 18:00 to 19:00 in LT3 in the Kramer Building.

Please RSVP on 021 650 2888 or ems@uct.ac.za.