Exoplanets from the Archives. In this month’s episode, we have another interview from the archive where Fiona talks to Faith Hawthorn about her work in exoplanet detection and astronomy outreach. George and Jessy also answer your questions about potential dark matter candidates and Mercury’s origins, but first the news.

The News

Asteroid Impact Risk Reduced

2024 YR4, an asteroid estimated to be about 55 metres across, was first detected last year by the Asteroid Terrestrial impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) and was found to have a non-zero chance of colliding with the Earth on 22nd December 2032. Originally, the impact probability was 1 in 67, however this probability has now dropped to 1 in 360.

It will soon become too far away for us to detect, but should come back into sight in 2028 when further observations will be made and the chances of impact will be updated accordingly, with the probability being expected to drop further. 2024 YR4 is still at the top of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies Sentry Risk Table. Earlier last month, the risk factor was increased to 1 in 32, making it the riskiest asteroid in the history of the risk table, so it is comforting to know that the risk has now decreased! This trend of detection, increase in risk factor and then decrease as more observations are made is commonplace in asteroid detections.

Interview with Dr Faith Hawthorn

This month’s interview is another one from the archive. Fiona talks to Faith Hawthorn from the University of Warwick about Exoplanet detection techniques and her astronomy outreach work.

Ask and Astronomer

In this month’s Ask an Astronomer segment, George and Jessy answer your questions and discuss the viability of solar mass black holes as dark matter candidates and did Mercury have a past life as a Jovian moon?

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Interview : Faith Hawthorn and Fiona Porter
Presenters : Nastassia Raffy and Phoebe Ryder
Editors : Jamie Incley, Tobias Russell and Jordan Norris
Show Editor : Jessy Marin
Ask an Astronomer : George Bendo and Jessy Marin
Show Lead : Louisa Mason
Website : Lily Correa Magnus
Producer : Lily Correa Magnus
Cover Art : One of the smallest exoplanets known to circle another star compared to Earth and Kepler-20e. Called KOI-961.01 (left-most), it is one of three exoplanets detected orbiting the same star. CREDIT:Credit: Nasa.