The NAU Review — DART watch party, the Community Expo and a podcast about podcasts

Sept. 29, 2022

On Monday, at 4:13 p.m. (Arizona time), more than 7 million miles away, NASA’s DART mission successfully slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos, making history as the first step toward a possible future planetary defense strategy that includes redirecting asteroids on a collision course with Earth. Cristina Thomas, assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science and team lead on the DART mission, along with Jason Wilder, vice president for research, were at mission control in Laurel, Maryland, to witness the historic moment unfold.

The grant will allow the Center for Health Equity Research to continue the Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative for another five years. The results of the first five years of SHERC are unmatched: 72 projects, $40 million of external grants, dozens of community partnerships and answers to critical health questions about COVID-19, cancer, opioids and more. Upcoming projects include creating a better model to predict the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, increasing physical activity among people incarcerated in jails and studying how the gut microbiome can influence asthma, of which poor urban Arizona communities have disproportionately high rates.