From Evelyn Hugo to NASA: Author Taylor Jenkins Reid reaches for the stars
"I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.'"
Atmosphere follows astronomer Joan Goodwin, who is selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space - until tragedy strikes.
The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind Captain Marvel, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a cinema release in mind.
Reid knew that she had to do more than just her average six to eight weeks of research. Research and rabbit holes, by the way, are Reid's jam. She's written blockbuster novels set in the golden age of Hollywood in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the 1970s rock scene in Daisy Jones & the Six, 1980s surf culture in Malibu Rising and professional tennis in Carrie Soto is Back. With Atmosphere, though, it took extra time, reading and understanding.
"It feels like a fever dream now when I think about it," Reid said. "It was a very intense period of time. "
For this endeavor, she needed assistance: "I had to reach out to people, complete strangers that I did not know and say, 'Will you please help me?'" She was surprised at how many people said yes. One of the most important voices was Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director.
"He spent hours of time with me," Reid said. "He helped me figure out how to cause a lot of mayhem on the space shuttle. He helped figure out exactly how the process of the connection between mission control and the space shuttle work. The book doesn't exist if he hadn't done that."
Question: How has writing Atmosphere changed you?
REID: I'm really into astronomy. Last Thanksgiving my family took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I routed us through Scottsdale, Arizona, because I wanted to go to a dark sky park. Because of light pollution, we can only see the brightest stars when we go out and look at the night sky in a major city. Whereas when you go to a dark sky park there is very limited man-made light. So you can see more stars. We got there and it was cloudy. I was beside myself. The next night we got to the Grand Canyon and all the clouds had disappeared and you could see everything. I stood there for hours. I was teary-eyed. I can't emphasise enough: If anyone has any inclination to just go outside and look up at the night sky, it's so rewarding.
Q: Last year you left social media. Where are you at with it now?
REID: I didn't realise how much social media was creating so many messages in my head of, you're not good enough. You should be better. You should work harder. You should have a prettier home. You should make a better dinner. And when I stopped going on it, very quickly I started to hear my own voice clearer. It was so much easier to be in touch with what I thought, how I felt, what I valued. I was more in touch with myself but also I'm going out into the world and I'm looking up at the sky and I am seeing where I am in relation to everything around me and I starting to understand how small my life is compared to the scale of the universe.
Q: Serena Williams is executive producing Carrie Soto for a series at Netflix. Did you meet her?
REID: Yes. It's the only time I've been starstruck. I was in my bones, nervous. I had to talk to myself like, "Taylor, slow down your heart rate." The admiration I have for her as an athlete but also as a human is immense. The idea that I might have written something that she felt captured anything worth her time, is a great honor. And the fact that she's coming on board to help us make it the most authentic story we possibly can, I'm thrilled. It's one thing for me to pretend I know what it's like to be standing at Flushing Meadows and win the US Open. Serena knows. She's done it multiple times. And so as we render that world, I think it is going to be really, really special because we have Serena and her team to help us.
Q: Now for your favorite question. What's up with the Evelyn Hugo movie?
REID: There's not much that I am allowed to say but a lot of times I think people mistake me not saying anything as a lack of interest or focus and that's not the case. Everyone is working incredibly hard to get this movie made and everyone knows that there is a lot of pressure to get it exactly right. We're all hard at work. We're taking it very seriously and I give Netflix so much credit because they have such an immense respect for the readership of that book. They want to make them happy.
AP/AAP
Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, Atmosphere: A Love Story, set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through.
"I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.'"
Atmosphere follows astronomer Joan Goodwin, who is selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space - until tragedy strikes.
The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind Captain Marvel, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a cinema release in mind.
Reid knew that she had to do more than just her average six to eight weeks of research. Research and rabbit holes, by the way, are Reid's jam. She's written blockbuster novels set in the golden age of Hollywood in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the 1970s rock scene in Daisy Jones & the Six, 1980s surf culture in Malibu Rising and professional tennis in Carrie Soto is Back. With Atmosphere, though, it took extra time, reading and understanding.
"It feels like a fever dream now when I think about it," Reid said. "It was a very intense period of time. "
For this endeavor, she needed assistance: "I had to reach out to people, complete strangers that I did not know and say, 'Will you please help me?'" She was surprised at how many people said yes. One of the most important voices was Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director.
"He spent hours of time with me," Reid said. "He helped me figure out how to cause a lot of mayhem on the space shuttle. He helped figure out exactly how the process of the connection between mission control and the space shuttle work. The book doesn't exist if he hadn't done that."
Question: How has writing Atmosphere changed you?
REID: I'm really into astronomy. Last Thanksgiving my family took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I routed us through Scottsdale, Arizona, because I wanted to go to a dark sky park. Because of light pollution, we can only see the brightest stars when we go out and look at the night sky in a major city. Whereas when you go to a dark sky park there is very limited man-made light. So you can see more stars. We got there and it was cloudy. I was beside myself. The next night we got to the Grand Canyon and all the clouds had disappeared and you could see everything. I stood there for hours. I was teary-eyed. I can't emphasise enough: If anyone has any inclination to just go outside and look up at the night sky, it's so rewarding.
Q: Last year you left social media. Where are you at with it now?
REID: I didn't realise how much social media was creating so many messages in my head of, you're not good enough. You should be better. You should work harder. You should have a prettier home. You should make a better dinner. And when I stopped going on it, very quickly I started to hear my own voice clearer. It was so much easier to be in touch with what I thought, how I felt, what I valued. I was more in touch with myself but also I'm going out into the world and I'm looking up at the sky and I am seeing where I am in relation to everything around me and I starting to understand how small my life is compared to the scale of the universe.
Q: Serena Williams is executive producing Carrie Soto for a series at Netflix. Did you meet her?
REID: Yes. It's the only time I've been starstruck. I was in my bones, nervous. I had to talk to myself like, "Taylor, slow down your heart rate." The admiration I have for her as an athlete but also as a human is immense. The idea that I might have written something that she felt captured anything worth her time, is a great honor. And the fact that she's coming on board to help us make it the most authentic story we possibly can, I'm thrilled. It's one thing for me to pretend I know what it's like to be standing at Flushing Meadows and win the US Open. Serena knows. She's done it multiple times. And so as we render that world, I think it is going to be really, really special because we have Serena and her team to help us.
Q: Now for your favorite question. What's up with the Evelyn Hugo movie?
REID: There's not much that I am allowed to say but a lot of times I think people mistake me not saying anything as a lack of interest or focus and that's not the case. Everyone is working incredibly hard to get this movie made and everyone knows that there is a lot of pressure to get it exactly right. We're all hard at work. We're taking it very seriously and I give Netflix so much credit because they have such an immense respect for the readership of that book. They want to make them happy.
AP/AAP
Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, Atmosphere: A Love Story, set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through.
"I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.'"
Atmosphere follows astronomer Joan Goodwin, who is selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space - until tragedy strikes.
The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind Captain Marvel, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a cinema release in mind.
Reid knew that she had to do more than just her average six to eight weeks of research. Research and rabbit holes, by the way, are Reid's jam. She's written blockbuster novels set in the golden age of Hollywood in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the 1970s rock scene in Daisy Jones & the Six, 1980s surf culture in Malibu Rising and professional tennis in Carrie Soto is Back. With Atmosphere, though, it took extra time, reading and understanding.
"It feels like a fever dream now when I think about it," Reid said. "It was a very intense period of time. "
For this endeavor, she needed assistance: "I had to reach out to people, complete strangers that I did not know and say, 'Will you please help me?'" She was surprised at how many people said yes. One of the most important voices was Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director.
"He spent hours of time with me," Reid said. "He helped me figure out how to cause a lot of mayhem on the space shuttle. He helped figure out exactly how the process of the connection between mission control and the space shuttle work. The book doesn't exist if he hadn't done that."
Question: How has writing Atmosphere changed you?
REID: I'm really into astronomy. Last Thanksgiving my family took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I routed us through Scottsdale, Arizona, because I wanted to go to a dark sky park. Because of light pollution, we can only see the brightest stars when we go out and look at the night sky in a major city. Whereas when you go to a dark sky park there is very limited man-made light. So you can see more stars. We got there and it was cloudy. I was beside myself. The next night we got to the Grand Canyon and all the clouds had disappeared and you could see everything. I stood there for hours. I was teary-eyed. I can't emphasise enough: If anyone has any inclination to just go outside and look up at the night sky, it's so rewarding.
Q: Last year you left social media. Where are you at with it now?
REID: I didn't realise how much social media was creating so many messages in my head of, you're not good enough. You should be better. You should work harder. You should have a prettier home. You should make a better dinner. And when I stopped going on it, very quickly I started to hear my own voice clearer. It was so much easier to be in touch with what I thought, how I felt, what I valued. I was more in touch with myself but also I'm going out into the world and I'm looking up at the sky and I am seeing where I am in relation to everything around me and I starting to understand how small my life is compared to the scale of the universe.
Q: Serena Williams is executive producing Carrie Soto for a series at Netflix. Did you meet her?
REID: Yes. It's the only time I've been starstruck. I was in my bones, nervous. I had to talk to myself like, "Taylor, slow down your heart rate." The admiration I have for her as an athlete but also as a human is immense. The idea that I might have written something that she felt captured anything worth her time, is a great honor. And the fact that she's coming on board to help us make it the most authentic story we possibly can, I'm thrilled. It's one thing for me to pretend I know what it's like to be standing at Flushing Meadows and win the US Open. Serena knows. She's done it multiple times. And so as we render that world, I think it is going to be really, really special because we have Serena and her team to help us.
Q: Now for your favorite question. What's up with the Evelyn Hugo movie?
REID: There's not much that I am allowed to say but a lot of times I think people mistake me not saying anything as a lack of interest or focus and that's not the case. Everyone is working incredibly hard to get this movie made and everyone knows that there is a lot of pressure to get it exactly right. We're all hard at work. We're taking it very seriously and I give Netflix so much credit because they have such an immense respect for the readership of that book. They want to make them happy.
AP/AAP
Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, Atmosphere: A Love Story, set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through.
"I said, 'I can't write this book. I don't know enough about the space shuttle. I don't know what happens when the payload bay doors won't shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can't land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.' And he's like, 'Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you're doing.'"
Atmosphere follows astronomer Joan Goodwin, who is selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space - until tragedy strikes.
The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind Captain Marvel, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a cinema release in mind.
Reid knew that she had to do more than just her average six to eight weeks of research. Research and rabbit holes, by the way, are Reid's jam. She's written blockbuster novels set in the golden age of Hollywood in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the 1970s rock scene in Daisy Jones & the Six, 1980s surf culture in Malibu Rising and professional tennis in Carrie Soto is Back. With Atmosphere, though, it took extra time, reading and understanding.
"It feels like a fever dream now when I think about it," Reid said. "It was a very intense period of time. "
For this endeavor, she needed assistance: "I had to reach out to people, complete strangers that I did not know and say, 'Will you please help me?'" She was surprised at how many people said yes. One of the most important voices was Paul Dye, NASA's longest-serving flight director.
"He spent hours of time with me," Reid said. "He helped me figure out how to cause a lot of mayhem on the space shuttle. He helped figure out exactly how the process of the connection between mission control and the space shuttle work. The book doesn't exist if he hadn't done that."
Question: How has writing Atmosphere changed you?
REID: I'm really into astronomy. Last Thanksgiving my family took a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I routed us through Scottsdale, Arizona, because I wanted to go to a dark sky park. Because of light pollution, we can only see the brightest stars when we go out and look at the night sky in a major city. Whereas when you go to a dark sky park there is very limited man-made light. So you can see more stars. We got there and it was cloudy. I was beside myself. The next night we got to the Grand Canyon and all the clouds had disappeared and you could see everything. I stood there for hours. I was teary-eyed. I can't emphasise enough: If anyone has any inclination to just go outside and look up at the night sky, it's so rewarding.
Q: Last year you left social media. Where are you at with it now?
REID: I didn't realise how much social media was creating so many messages in my head of, you're not good enough. You should be better. You should work harder. You should have a prettier home. You should make a better dinner. And when I stopped going on it, very quickly I started to hear my own voice clearer. It was so much easier to be in touch with what I thought, how I felt, what I valued. I was more in touch with myself but also I'm going out into the world and I'm looking up at the sky and I am seeing where I am in relation to everything around me and I starting to understand how small my life is compared to the scale of the universe.
Q: Serena Williams is executive producing Carrie Soto for a series at Netflix. Did you meet her?
REID: Yes. It's the only time I've been starstruck. I was in my bones, nervous. I had to talk to myself like, "Taylor, slow down your heart rate." The admiration I have for her as an athlete but also as a human is immense. The idea that I might have written something that she felt captured anything worth her time, is a great honor. And the fact that she's coming on board to help us make it the most authentic story we possibly can, I'm thrilled. It's one thing for me to pretend I know what it's like to be standing at Flushing Meadows and win the US Open. Serena knows. She's done it multiple times. And so as we render that world, I think it is going to be really, really special because we have Serena and her team to help us.
Q: Now for your favorite question. What's up with the Evelyn Hugo movie?
REID: There's not much that I am allowed to say but a lot of times I think people mistake me not saying anything as a lack of interest or focus and that's not the case. Everyone is working incredibly hard to get this movie made and everyone knows that there is a lot of pressure to get it exactly right. We're all hard at work. We're taking it very seriously and I give Netflix so much credit because they have such an immense respect for the readership of that book. They want to make them happy.
AP/AAP
Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
28 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Perth all-girl band relive glory days in iconic film sequel
It's the song that burned bright as a teenage anthem in the early 2000s, and now Take Me Away by Perth band Lash is being introduced to a new generation of fans. The song, with it's iconic sing-a-long chorus of I don't wanna grow up/I wanna get out , was brought to global fame by the 2005 hit film Freaky Friday starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. It's now being featured in the films sequel and the band behind the tune are finding themselves back in the spotlight. 'It's taking me back into a time capsule,' former member of Lash Belinda-Lee Reid says. Reid wrote Take Me Away when she was 18, but Lash were already a well established band. They formed in 1996 when the members were just 13 years old. They signed to Festival Mushroom Records in 2001 just as the teenagers were finishing high school, and they relocated to Sydney to record an album. 'We were actually sitting around a lot during the time of writing songs and we were stuck in a studio,' Reid says of when she wrote Take Me Away. 'We had a lot of teenage angst - we were angry little teenagers.' Perth rock band Lash as they appeared on the cover of Smash Hits magazine in May 2001. Take Me Away was their first single off their album, The Beautiful and the Damned. Credit: Unknown / Supplied Lash in 2002. Belinda-Lee Reid is second from left. Credit: Unknown / Supplied Take Me Away peaked at number 33 on the Australian Singles Chart in 2001, and would have faded into obscurity if it hadn't been picked up two years later by the producers at Disney when they were searching for music for Freaky Friday. Ionically, the band never capitalised on their biggest hit as the request from Disney came just as the band was on the verge of splitting up. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in 2003 film Freaky Friday which featured the Lash song, Take Me Away Credit: Unknown / Supplied 'It came at a time when our career had kinda ended,' Reid says. 'We had already dissipated as a band when they decided to use it. One of the girls wanted to start a family and that was it - the band was capooty. At first they wanted us to fly to America to re-record it and we were going to sing it, but then 9/11 happened so we didn't go. And then Kelly Osborne was supposed to sing it but then her mum, Sharon Osborne got cancer so she didn't sing it, so (US band) Pink Slip ended up recording a cover of it which became the hit.' While the Pink Slip cover was initially better known, Reid says as the years have gone by, US fans have sought out the Lash original, which now has more than 10 million streams on Spotify. Another Lash song, Beauty Queen, is also featured in the Freaky Friday film, with Reid doing the vocals. Now in her 40s, Reid says her teenage years as a rock star feel a million miles away. After Lash split up, the band went their separate ways. Guitarist Jessica Bennett is a producer at her own music studio in Melbourne, Love Shack Studios. Drummer Jac Pearson is a scientist living in Wales and singer and bass player Micaela Slayford is a mum of four and based in Fremantle. Reid is now a real estate agent in Fremantle. Lash broke up when the members were 23 and Reid says making the transition from music to the working world wasn't easy. 'Getting into the workforce when I finished my music career was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do,' Reid says. 'There was nothing on my CV. They'd say 'where have you been for the past six years?' And I would say 'well, I've been doing music.' Belinda-Lee Reid in 2025. After her time as a teenage rock star, Reid entered the Real Estate industry and today works for the Carlin Team in Fremantle. Credit: Ilkka Kadala 'It was just so hard to get into a career straight after coming out of it. It was almost like that movie, Almost Famous, where you come off the circus wagon and you just go, 'Oh my gosh, what do I do now? This is just so weird'. 'I am now with Carlin Real Estate, the Tom Carlin team, I have done Real Estate since 2008 and I love it, I love working with people, I love selling houses and I love real estate.' Reid has been invited to attend the premier of Freakier Friday in Sydney next week, where she can final reveal in the success of the song she penned when she was a teenager. 'Apparently Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are going to be there. So hopefully I get to meet them and have a little fancy photo with them,' Reid says.
The Advertiser
2 hours ago
- The Advertiser
All you need to know about a celestial double-act across Australia
Two meteor showers will grace our skies this week in a celestial double-act. The Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids will both peak between July 28-30. The Southern Delta Aquariids is visible from mid-July to mid-August but likely to exhibit peak activity on July 28 or 29. This meteor shower is best viewed in the pre-dawn hours, away from the city lights. Under perfect conditions, you can expect to see about 25 shooting stars an hour. The Alpha Capricornids shower will also peak this week, expected to be brightest on July 30. It started as early as July 7 and continues until around August 15. This shower is less frequent but is known for its slow-moving, colourful and bright meteors. READ MORE: When cringe was cool: sixty objects that shaped Australian history Meteor showers are leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids, according to NASA. When comets orbit the sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits. Two meteor showers will grace our skies this week in a celestial double-act. The Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids will both peak between July 28-30. The Southern Delta Aquariids is visible from mid-July to mid-August but likely to exhibit peak activity on July 28 or 29. This meteor shower is best viewed in the pre-dawn hours, away from the city lights. Under perfect conditions, you can expect to see about 25 shooting stars an hour. The Alpha Capricornids shower will also peak this week, expected to be brightest on July 30. It started as early as July 7 and continues until around August 15. This shower is less frequent but is known for its slow-moving, colourful and bright meteors. READ MORE: When cringe was cool: sixty objects that shaped Australian history Meteor showers are leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids, according to NASA. When comets orbit the sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits. Two meteor showers will grace our skies this week in a celestial double-act. The Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids will both peak between July 28-30. The Southern Delta Aquariids is visible from mid-July to mid-August but likely to exhibit peak activity on July 28 or 29. This meteor shower is best viewed in the pre-dawn hours, away from the city lights. Under perfect conditions, you can expect to see about 25 shooting stars an hour. The Alpha Capricornids shower will also peak this week, expected to be brightest on July 30. It started as early as July 7 and continues until around August 15. This shower is less frequent but is known for its slow-moving, colourful and bright meteors. READ MORE: When cringe was cool: sixty objects that shaped Australian history Meteor showers are leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids, according to NASA. When comets orbit the sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits. Two meteor showers will grace our skies this week in a celestial double-act. The Southern Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids will both peak between July 28-30. The Southern Delta Aquariids is visible from mid-July to mid-August but likely to exhibit peak activity on July 28 or 29. This meteor shower is best viewed in the pre-dawn hours, away from the city lights. Under perfect conditions, you can expect to see about 25 shooting stars an hour. The Alpha Capricornids shower will also peak this week, expected to be brightest on July 30. It started as early as July 7 and continues until around August 15. This shower is less frequent but is known for its slow-moving, colourful and bright meteors. READ MORE: When cringe was cool: sixty objects that shaped Australian history Meteor showers are leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids, according to NASA. When comets orbit the sun, the dust they emit gradually spreads into a dusty trail around their orbits.
9 News
2 days ago
- 9 News
The asteroid that will spare Earth might hit the moon instead. What happens if it does?
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here The asteroid known as 2024 YR4 is out of sight yet still very much on scientists' minds. The building-sized object, which initially appeared to be on a potential collision course with Earth, is currently zooming beyond the reach of telescopes on its orbit around the sun. But as scientists wait for it to reappear, its revised trajectory is now drawing attention to another possible target: the moon. An artist's impression depicts an asteroid orbiting the sun. (ESA via CNN Newsource) Discovered at the end of 2024, the space rock looked at first as if it might hit our planet by December 22, 2032. The chance of that impact changed with every new observation, peaking at 3.1 per cent in February — odds that made it the riskiest asteroid ever observed. Ground- and space-based telescope observations were crucial in helping astronomers narrow in on 2024 YR4's size and orbit. With more precise measurements, researchers were ultimately able to rule out an Earth impact. The latest observations of the asteroid in early June, before YR4 disappeared from view, have improved astronomers' knowledge of where it will be in seven years by almost 20 per cent, according to NASA. That data shows that even with Earth avoiding direct impact, YR4 could still pose a threat in late 2032 by slamming into the moon. The impact would be a once-in-a-lifetime event for humanity to witness — but it could also send fine-grained lunar material hurtling toward our planet. A vapor cloud trail left by the Chelyabinsk asteroid. (M. Ahmetvaleev/ESA via CNN Newsource) While Earth wouldn't face any significant physical danger should the asteroid strike the moon, there is a chance that any astronauts or infrastructure on the lunar surface at that time could be at risk — as could satellites orbiting our planet that we depend on to keep vital aspects of life, including navigation and communications, running smoothly. Any missions in low-Earth orbit could also be in the pathway of the debris, though the International Space Station is scheduled to be deorbited before any potential impact. Initially, YR4 was seen as a case study in why scientists do the crucial work of planetary defence, discovering and tracking asteroids to determine which ones have a chance of colliding with Earth. Now, astronomers say this one asteroid could redefine the range of risks the field addresses, expanding the purview of the work to include monitoring asteroids that might be headed for the moon as well. The moon is covered in craters like Daedalus, as seen by the Apollo 11 crew on the moon's far side. (CNN) "We're starting to realise that maybe we need to extend that shield a little bit further," said Dr. Paul Wiegert, a professor of astronomy and physics at the Western University in London, Ontario. "We now have things worth protecting that are a bit further away from Earth, so our vision is hopefully expanding a little bit to encompass that." In the meantime, researchers are assessing just how much chaos a potential YR4 lunar impact could create — and whether anything can be done to mitigate it. The threatening hunk of rock appears as just a speck of light through even the strongest astronomical tools. In reality, YR4 is likely about 60m in diameter, according to observations in March by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space-based observatory in operation. "Size equals energy," said Julien de Wit, associate professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who observed YR4 with Webb. "Knowing YR4's size helped us understand how big of an explosion it could be." A graphic shows the range of possible locations of the asteroid in yellow on December 22, 203 (CNN) Astronomers believe they have found most of the near-Earth asteroids the field would classify as "planet killers" — space rocks that are 1 kilometre across or larger and could be civilisation-ending, said Dr. Andy Rivkin, planetary astronomer from the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. The planet killer that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago and led to the extinction of dinosaurs was estimated to be roughly 10 kilometres in diameter. Smaller asteroids such as YR4, which was colloquially dubbed a "city killer" after its discovery, could cause regional devastation if they collide with our planet. About 40 per cent of near-Earth space rocks larger than 140m but smaller than a kilometre — capable of more widespread destruction — have been identified, according to NASA. An illustration shows NEO Surveyor, NASA's next-generation near-Earth object hunter. (CNN) But astronomers have never really had a chance to watch a collision of that size occur on the moon in real time, Wiegert said. The latest glimpses of YR4 on June 3 before it passed out of view revealed a 4.3 per cent chance of a YR4 lunar impact — small but decent enough odds for scientists to consider how such a scenario might play out. Initial calculations suggest the impact has the largest chance of occurring on the near side of the moon — the side we can see from Earth. "YR4 is so faint and small we were able to measure its position with JWST longer than we were able to do it from the ground," said Rivkin, who has been leading the Webb study of YR4. "And that lets us calculate a much more precise orbit for it, so we now have a much better idea of where it will be and won't be." ESA's NEOMIR mission could spot previously unknown asteroids (Pierre Carril/ESA via CNN Newsource) The collision could create a bright flash that would be visible with the naked eye for several seconds, according to Wiegert, lead author of a recent paper submitted to the American Astronomical Society journals analysing the potential lunar impact. The collision could create an impact crater on the moon estimated at 1 kilometre wide (0.6 miles wide), Wiegert said — about the size of Meteor Crater in Arizona, Rivkin added. It would be the largest impact on the moon in 5000 years and could release up to 100 million kilograms of lunar rocks and dust, according to the modelling in Wiegert's study. Even pieces of debris that are just tens of centimetres in size could present a hazard for any astronauts who may be present on the moon, or any structures they have built for research and habitation, Wiegert said. The moon has no atmosphere, so the debris from the event could be widespread on the lunar surface, he added. On average, the moon is 384,400 kilometres away from Earth, according to NASA. The Webb telescope captured images of YR4 in March using its NIRCam and MIRI instruments. (A Rivkin/Webb/STScI/CSA/NASA/ESA via CNN Newsource) Particles the size of large sand grains, ranging from 0.1 to 10 millimetres in size, of lunar material could reach Earth between a few days and a few months after the asteroid strike because they'll be travelling incredibly fast, creating an intense, eye-catching meteor shower, Wiegert said. "There's absolutely no danger to anyone on the surface," Wiegert said. "We're not expecting large boulders or anything larger than maybe a sugar cube, and our atmosphere will protect us very nicely from that. But they're travelling faster than a speeding bullet, so if they were to hit a satellite, that could cause some damage." Not all lunar debris that reaches the Earth is so small, and it depends on the angle and type of impact to the moon, according to Washington University in St. Louis. Space rocks slamming into the lunar surface over millions of years have resulted in various sizes of lunar meteorites found on Earth. Hundreds to thousands of impacts from millimeter-size debris could affect Earth's satellite fleet, meaning satellites could experience up to 10 years' equivalent of meteor debris exposure in a few days, Wiegert said. Humankind depends on vital space infrastructure, said Dan Oltrogge, chief scientist at COMSPOC, a space situational awareness software company that develops solutions for handling hazards such as space debris. "Space touches almost every aspect of our lives today, ranging from commerce, communications, travel, industry, education, and social media, so a loss of access to and effective use of space presents a serious risk to humanity," Oltrogge said. Hundreds to thousands of impacts from millimetre-size debris could affect Earth's satellite fleet (AP) The event is unlikely to trigger a Kessler Syndrome scenario in which debris from broken satellites would collide with others to create a domino effect or fall to Earth. Instead, it might be more akin to when a piece of gravel strikes a car windshield at high speed, meaning solar panels or other delicate satellite parts might be damaged, but the satellite will remain in one piece, Wiegert said. While a temporary loss of communication and navigation from satellites would create widespread difficulties on Earth, Wiegert said he believes the potential impact is something for satellite operators, rather than the public, to worry about. Scientists and astronomers around the world are thinking about the possible scenarios since they could not rule out a lunar impact before YR4 disappeared from view, Wiegert said. "We realise that an impact to the moon could be consequential, so what would we do?" de Wit said. A potential planetary defence plan might be clearer if the asteroid were headed straight for Earth. A potential planetary defence plan might be clearer if the asteroid were headed straight for Earth. (AP) Rivkin helped test one approach in September 2022 as the principal investigator of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which intentionally slammed a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022. Dimorphos is a moonlet asteroid that orbits a larger parent asteroid known as Didymos. Neither poses a threat to Earth, but the double-asteroid system was a perfect target to test deflection technology because Dimorphos' size is comparable to asteroids that could harm our planet in the event of an impact. The DART mission crashed a spacecraft into the asteroid at six kilometres per second to find out whether such a kinetic impact would be enough to change the motion of a celestial object in space. It worked. Since the day of the collision, data from ground-based telescopes has revealed that the DART spacecraft did alter Dimorphos' orbital period — or how long it takes to make a single revolution around Didymos — by about 32 or 33 minutes. Though defence plans for a potential moon impact still aren't clear, YR4's journey underscores the importance of tracking objects that are often impossible to see. (Getty) And scientists have continued to observe additional changes to the pair, including how the direct hit likely deformed Dimorphos due to the asteroid's composition. Similarly, if YR4 strikes the moon and doesn't result in damaging effects for satellites, it could create a tremendous opportunity for researchers to learn how the lunar surface responds to impacts, Wiegert said. But whether it would make sense to send a DART-like mission to knock YR4 off a collision course with the moon remains to be seen. It will depend on future risk assessments by planetary defence groups when the asteroid comes back into view around 2028, de Wit said. Though defence plans for a potential moon impact still aren't clear, YR4's journey underscores the importance — and the challenges — of tracking objects that are often impossible to see. YR4 was detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS telescope, in Río Hurtado, Chile, two days after the asteroid had already made its closest pass by Earth, hidden by the bright glare of the sun as it approached our planet. The same thing occurred when an asteroid measuring roughly 20m across hit the atmosphere and exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia, on February 15, 2013, damaging thousands of buildings, according to the European Space Agency. While no one died, about 1500 people were injured when the windows in homes and businesses blew out due to the shock wave. Trying to observe asteroids is challenging for many reasons, Rivkin said. Asteroids are incredibly faint and hard to see because rather than emitting their own light, they only reflect sunlight. And because of their relatively tiny size, interpreting observations is not a clear-cut process like looking through a telescope at a planet such as Mars or Jupiter. "For asteroids, we only see them as a point of light, and so by measuring how bright they are and measuring their temperature, basically we can get a size based on how big do they have to be in order to be this bright," Rivkin said. For decades, astronomers have had to search for faint asteroids by night, which means missing any that may be on a path coming from the direction of the sun — creating the world's biggest blind spot for ground-based telescopes that can't block out our star's luminosity. NASA and other space agencies are constantly on the lookout for potentially hazardous asteroids. (Don Pettit/NASA via CNN Newsource) But upcoming telescopes — including NASA's NEO Surveyor, expected to launch by the end of 2027 and the European Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Mission in the InfraRed, or NEOMIR satellite, set for liftoff in the early 2030s — could shrink that blind spot, helping researchers detect asteroids much closer to the sun. "NEOMIR would have detected asteroid 2024 YR4 about a month earlier than ground-based telescopes did," said Richard Moissl, head of ESA's Planetary Defence Office, in a statement. "This would have given astronomers more time to study the asteroid's trajectory and allowed them to much sooner rule out any chance of Earth impact in 2032." NASA and other space agencies are constantly on the lookout for potentially hazardous asteroids, defined as such based on their distance from Earth and ability to cause significant damage should an impact occur. Asteroids that can't get any closer to our planet than one-twentieth of Earth's distance from the sun are not considered to be potentially hazardous asteroids, according to NASA. This illustration made available by Johns Hopkins APL and NASA depicts NASA's DART probe, upper right, on course to impact the asteroid Dimorphos, left, which orbits Didymos. DART is expected to zero in on the asteroid Monday, Sept. 26, 2022, intent on slamming it head-on at 14,000 mph. The impact should be just enough to nudge the asteroid into a slightly tighter orbit around its companion space rock. (Steve Gribben/Johns Hopkins APL/NASA via AP) (AP) When the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located in the Andes in Chile, released its first stunning images of the cosmos in June, researchers revealed the discovery of more than 2,100 previously unknown asteroids after seven nights of observations. Of those newly detected space rocks, seven were near-Earth objects. A near-Earth object is an asteroid or comet on an orbit that brings it within 190 million kilometres of the sun, which means it has the potential to pass near Earth, according to NASA. None of the new ones detected by Rubin were determined to pose a threat to our planet. Rubin will act as a great asteroid hunter, de Wit said, while telescopes such as Webb could be a tracker that follow up on Rubin's discoveries. A proposal by Rivkin and de Wit to use Webb to observe YR4 in the spring of 2026 has just been approved. An illustration depicts the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft as it descended toward the rocky surface of asteroid Bennu. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona) Webb is the only telescope with a chance of glimpsing the asteroid before 2028. "This newly approved program will buy decision makers two extra years to prepare — though most likely to relax, as there is an 80 per cent chance of ruling out impact — while providing key experience-based lessons for handling future potential impactors to be discovered by Vera Rubin," de Wit said. And because of the twists and turns of YR4's tale thus far, asteroids that have potential to affect the moon could become objects of even more intense study in the future. "If this really is a thing that we only have to worry about every 5000 years or something, then maybe that's less pressing," Rivkin said. "But even just asking what would we do if we did see something that was going to hit the moon is at least something that we can now start thinking about." CONTACT US
