NASA to Host News Conference on Asteroid Search Findings

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT) on Thurs., Sept. 29, to reveal near-Earth asteroid findings and implications for future research. The briefing will take place at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission, launched in December 2009, captured millions of images of galaxies and objects in space. During the news conference, panelists will discuss results from an enhancement of WISE called Near-Earth Object WISE (NEOWISE) that hunted for asteroids.

The panelists are:

--Lindley Johnson, Near-Earth Object program executive, NASA Headquarters, Washington
--Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
--Tim Spahr, director, Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass.
--Lucy McFadden, scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. It will also will be streamed live, with a moderated chat available, at: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .