Jay Tate of Spaceguard talks intergalactic threats

In June 1996 Jay submitted a proposal to the British Ministry of Defence and the Department of Trade and Industry, proposing the establishment of a British National Spaceguard Centre to study the threat posed to the UK by the impact of an asteroid or comet. Support was received from scientists worldwide, including Dr Arthur C Clarke, Dr Gene Shoemaker, Professor Edward Teller and many others. The Ministry of Defence dismissed the proposal without consideration, but the Department of Trade and Industry has, after over three years, decided that further study would be appropriate.

In January 1997 Jay established Spaceguard UK which is now the largest independent Spaceguard organisation in the world, with a substantial national and international membership. During the past two years the subject of Spaceguard has been publicly aired in both Houses of Parliament, and Jay has been a regular contributor on television and radio, and also in professional and popular journals.

Born in 1955, Jay is a member of the Board of Directors of the international Spaceguard Foundation, a member of the Executive Committee of the Space Development Council, a consultant to the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Near Earth Objects, an associate of COSPAR (Panel 3) and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Jay has assisted the British Government Task Force that investigated British participation in the growing international Spaceguard programme during 2000.

Here he talks about the intergalactic dangers and what he does to ensure the human race doesn’t go the way of the dinosaur.

 

 

You work in the space field now. Did science fiction have an impact on you when you were young?

Absolutely.  I grew up with the classic sci-fi books of Arthur C Clarke and Issac Asimov. Watching the first run of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘ in cinemas was awesome too!

 

So you were always interested in space and the stars?

Space yes. Stars – not so much. It was the thought of exploration that caught my imagination.

I  remember the first Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, and the American Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programmes dominating my youth.

Did you think by 2011 we would be more ‘in space’ generally?I am rather sad at the lack of progress in space.  I think that we all thought, back in the ’60’s and ’70’s that we would step on from the Moon and explore further out into the Solar System. We have explored the other planets, of course, with robot spacecraft, and we have found amazing things, but people have not been beyond the outer atmosphere since Apollo back in those days.

 

But you yourself do work in the space field running Spaceguard. Can you explain what you do?

We are part of a small, but global group that keeps and eye open for asteroids or comets that might come a bit too close to the Earth – or even hit it.  This sort of thing has happened many times before, and it will happen again, but we are now able to stop dangerous impacts if we have enough notice.  We don’t have to go the same way as the dinosaurs!

 

Should we be worried about these threats then?

Concerned, not frightened! Luckily it is very rare for a large asteroid or comet to hit the Earth, but it does happen.

 

I heard you yourself discovered a big asteroid that may hit Mars?

Well, it’s probably not that big, but it might hit Mars in 2048. Bit of a shame it’s hitting Mars really – as most asteroids that are discovered orbit the Sun for billions of years, carrying their names into the future. But mine might not!

 

 

So it has your name?

No, that would be a bit ‘naff! At the moment it’s called 2011 CG42.  Once it has been round the Sun again we will enough observations of it to accurately calculate it’s orbit. Then I can give it a name, but not mine!

 

So what should young people do if they are interested in working in the space field one day?

The route into space is through physics and maths (Ugh!). What the space programme (manned and unmanned) needs are scientists and engineers who can come up with clever and new ideas. The space programme seems to be moving away from the control of governments, and into the private sector. That might open up new opportunities for bright young scientists.

 

Sounds good. So what are the best bits of your job?

The best bits of my job? Well, I can do exactly what I want! Without a boss I can concentrate on the things that interest me, or that I think are important. Space is an amazing place, and it’s not far away.  In fact I am closer to space now than I am to Birmingham! Also, space is a place, not a project – in fact the sky is half of our environment, but not many people know much about it.

 

Have you learnt anything particularly surprising or interesting about space?

Well, I suppose that the thing that surprised me most when I found out is that over 100 tons of stuff from space lands on the Earth every day. Most of it is dust (in fact, some of the dust on your bookshelf probably comes from space), but there are some bigger bits that reach the ground, and we call them meteorites. If you run a magnet along a dusty shelf you might pick up some tiny specks that are probably micrometeorites! We also have a little slice of Mars here – blown off the surface of the planet by an asteroid strike.  Some of the bits made it all the way to Earth!

So in the film – Mars Needs Moms – Martians are watching us and steal some people away in rocket ships. Do you think aliens could be out there?

Almost certainly – there are so many stars, and so many of them have planets there must be places out there where life has started and survived.  I am a bit dubious about intelligent life though. I am not sure that intelligence is necessarily a very good survival mechanism. I am sure that prinitive life exists out there – possibly even in our Solar System, but “little green men”? I don’t know…

Thanks Jay, we’ll let you go back to space!

No problem. We’re just getting the telescope ready for another night of asteroid tracking!
We’ll pop in next time we’re close by.

Most welcome! BTW, I’ll bet you £5 that we find evidence of primitive life on Mars within the next 10 years!

 

 

Mars Needs Moms Film Page | Spaceguard Official Website

Mars Needs Moms is released across the country on April 8th