Natalie Starkey, Science writer, giving a talk entitled "Hitch a ride on an asteroid" on the Cosmos Stage, at New Scientist Live 2019


Comets and asteroids are among the solar system’s very oldest inhabitants, formed within a swirling cloud of gas and dust. Locked within these objects is a wisdom of solar system events. By studying them at close quarters using spacecraft, we can coerce them into revealing their closely-guarded secrets, allowing us to answer fundamental questions about our planet and its inhabitants. Natalie Starkey tells the story of how exploring these enigmatic celestial objects also lets us shape the story of Earth’s future, enabling us to protect our precious planet from the threat of catastrophic impacts from space, and to even recover valuable raw materials from them. Natalie Starkey is a geologist and cosmochemist. Her work on US, European and Japanese space missions such as Stardust, Rosetta and Hayabusa led to her writing her first popular science book Catching Stardust: Comets, Asteroids and the Birth of the Solar System. Natalie regularly appears on television and radio internationally, as well as being a science host on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s popular StarTalk Radio. She is currently working on her second book Fire and Ice: space volcanoes.


Size: 3415px × 4996px
Location: ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock,
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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