
Asteroid Surveys
About
Catalina Sky Survey
The mission of the Catalina Sky Survey is to contribute to the inventory of near-earth objects (NEOs), or more specifically, the potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) that pose an impact risk to Earth and its inhabitants.
The identification of the iridium anomaly at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (Alvarez et al. 1980), associated Chicxulub impact crater (Hildebrand et al. 1991) and the Permian-Triassic "great dying" possibly being associated with Australian Bedout Crater (Becker et al. 2004) strongly suggest that impacts by minor planets play an important role in the evolution of life.
SPACEWATCH®
The primary goal of SPACEWATCH® is to explore the various populations of small objects in the solar system, and study the statistics of asteroids and comets in order to investigate the dynamical evolution of the solar system. SPACEWATCH® also finds potential targets for interplanetary spacecraft missions, provides follow-up astrometry of such targets, and finds objects that might present a hazard to the Earth.
Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission
The Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission, formerly called Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam), is a planned space-based infrared telescope designed to survey the Solar System for potentially hazardous asteroids.
Faculty
Asteroid Surveys Faculty

Amy Mainzer
Principal Investigator, NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor, Professor

Robert (Bob) McMillan
Research Professor (Retired)
Other Researchers
Asteroid Surveys Researchers

Adam Battle
PTYS Graduate Student

Melissa Brucker
Principal Investigator, Spacewatch, Research Scientist

Carson Fuls
PTYS Graduate Student, Science Engineering Specialist, Catalina Sky Survey

Tommy Grav
Research Scientist/Senior Staff Scientist

Hannes Gröller
Research Scientist/Assistant Staff Scientist

Steve Larson
Research Scientist/Senior Staff Scientist

Bashar Rizk
Research Scientist/Senior Staff Scientist, OSIRIS-REx/OCAMS

Gregory Zengilowski
Research Scientist
Support Staff
Asteroid Surveys Support Staff

Edward Beshore
Interim Director, Catalina Sky Survey, R&D Engineer, CSS

Terrence Bressi
Engineer/Observer, Spacewatch

Don Fay
Systems Administrator, Catalina Sky Survey

Jacqueline Fazekas
Research Technologist, Catalina Sky Survey

Alex Gibbs
Principal Engineer, Catalina Sky Survey

Albert Grauer
Technical Expert, Catalina Sky Survey

Joshua Hogan
Research Technologist, Catalina Sky Survey

Todd Horne
R&D Engineer/Scientist, NEO Surveyor

Richard Kowalski
Research Specialist, Senior, Catalina Sky Survey

Jeffrey Larsen
Technical Expert, Spacewatch

Gregory Leonard
Research Specialist, Senior, Catalina Sky Survey

Ronald Mastaler
Observer, Spacewatch

David Rankin
Senior Research Specialist, Catalina Sky Survey

Michael Read
Chief Engineer/Observer, Spacewatch

James Scotti
Observer, Spacewatch

Robert Seaman
Data Engineer, Senior, Data Engineer, Senior, Catalina Sky Survey

Frank Shelly
Senior Systems Programmer, Catalina Sky Survey

Andrew Tubbiolo
Engineer/Observer, Spacewatch