Dr Duncan Steel


	Research People Paul Davies home Students Seminars In the news Links Contact Us


	The Australian Centre for Astrobiology
	Dr Duncan Steel A few bullet points about my background: There is a robot named for me in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel ‘The Hammer of God’ Have worked in the past for both NASA and ESA Science advisor for an Emmy-winning TV documentary Lived in the UK , USA , New Zealand , Australia and Sweden , and visited over eighty other countries Author of four popular-level books, 130 scientific papers and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles Asteroid 4713 Steel is named for me, plus I was involved in naming 2472 Bradman for the greatest-ever cricketer, 6870 Pauldavies, and 7345 Happer for the character played by Burt Lancaster in the movie ‘Local Hero’ Appeared in dozens of TV documentaries and hundreds of radio interviews Observed comet Hale-Bopp from the Malibu Beach rooftop Jacuzzi of a movie producer whilst discussing the script for a TV mini-series about asteroids One of six foreign members of NASA’s Spaceguard committee in 1991-92; only non-US member of the Near-Earth Object Interception and Deflection committee Member of the British Delegation to the OECD Global Science Forum conference on Near-Earth Objects, 2003 Vice-President of The Spaceguard Foundation ( Frascati , Italy ) Introduced the Sex Pistols in their first-ever completed gig (November 1975) By training and background I am a physicist with interests mainly in the space and astronomy fields, including astrobiology: I have regularly worked with my friend Chris McKay at NASA-Ames since we were grad students together at the University of Colorado in 1979-82. I took a BSc degree in Physics and Astrophysics (1977), then a MSc in Optics (1979) at the University of London ; my PhD research was on radar studies of meteors at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand (1984). Since then I have been involved in a variety of investigations on small bodies in the solar system using optical telescopes, radar systems, and theoretical techniques to investigate their dynamical evolution. Before returning to Australia in 2003 I spent four years as Associate Professor of Space Technology at the University of Salford, UK. Apart from the above I have some considerable knowledge of the mathematics, history and astronomy of calendars, and the life and times of Charles Babbage. My present employer is the Australian subsidiary of the Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation of Boulder , Colorado , one of the major spacecraft manufacturers in the U.S. Books: Target Earth (Reader's Digest, New York & Sydney , 2000; Time Life, London , 2001). Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar (Wiley, New York , 2000). Eclipse: The Celestial Phenomenon That Changed the Course of History (Headline, London, 1999; second edition 2000; revised and expanded American edition published by the Joseph Henry/National Academies Press, Washington DC, 2001). Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets (Wiley, New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore, 1995; paperback 1997). Links: OpEds from The Guardian The Columbia space shuttle disaster: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,887677,00.html Missions to Mars: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,972416,00.html SETI: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1278934,00.html Astrobiology: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,9865,1112581,00.html Recent presentation regarding the Deep Impact mission: http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/jab/deepimpact/program.html On the Deep Impact mission (BBC radio): http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/bio-mahearn-bbc.html On solar system exploration: http://www.thesolarsystem.org/ss_essays.html Biopic: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/steel.html On my book ‘Target Earth’: http://essential-facts.com/guide_post.php3?Coherence=0762102985 http://www.astronomie.de/bibliothek/buchbesprechung/planeten/steel-zielscheibe_erde.htm On my book ‘Eclipse’: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10123.html http://www.popularscience.co.uk/reviews/rev28.htm On my book ‘Marking Time’: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0471404217/102-2494922-4468915?n=283155 On my book ‘Rogue Asteroids & Doomsday Comets’: http://www.amazings.com/sbb/reviews/review0007.html http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471193380/bcmedia05/102-2494922-4468915 On BBC TV regarding 'The Sky at Night' and asteroid/comet impacts: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spacechat/livechat/duncan_steel.shtml On ABC radio regarding the transit of Venus (June 2004): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s1125999.htm On ABC radio regarding the origin of life: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s223723.htm On Channel 9 ‘60 Minutes’: http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/sixtyminutes/stories/2002_03_17/story_530.asp Selected refereed publications from the last decade: D. Morrison, C.R. Chapman, D. Steel & R. Binzel, ‘Impacts and the Public: Communicating the Nature of the Impact Hazard,’ in Scientific Requirements for the Mitigation of Hazardous Comets and Asteroids (eds. M.J.S. Belton, T. Morgan and D.K. Yeomans), Cambridge University Press (2004). D. Steel, ‘The proper length of a calendar year,’ Astronomy & Geophysics, 43, 9, (2002). D. Steel, ‘Electromagnetic perturbations of the orbits of asteroids,’ pp.433-436 in European Space Agency SP-500, Asteroids, Comets, Meteors (2002) D. Steel, ‘Terrestrial impact rates for the known population on Earth-crossing asteroids,’ pp.145-147 in European Space Agency SP-500, Asteroids, Comets, Meteors (2002) D. Steel, 'Searching for NEOs Using Wide-Field Telescopes,' pp. 253-262 in The New Era of Wide-Field Astronomy (eds. R. Clowes, A. Adamson & G. Bromage), Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series , 232 (2001). D.J. Asher, M.E. Bailey & D.I. Steel, ‘The role of non-gravitational forces in decoupling orbits from Jupiter,’ pp.121-130 in Collisional Processes in the Solar System (eds. M.Ya. Marov & H. Rickman), Astrophysics and Space Science Library, 261, Kluwer, Dordrecht (2001). D. Steel, ‘Meteors and Interplanetary Dust,’ in Allen's Astrophysical Quantities (ed. A. Cox), Springer/American Institute of Physics, New York (2000). D. Steel, ‘The Leonid meteors: compositions and consequences,’ Astronomy & Geophysics , 39, 24-26 (1998). D.I. Steel, ‘Distributions and moments of asteroid and comet impact speeds upon the Earth and Mars,’ Planetary & Space Science, 46, 473-478 (1998). D.I. Steel, ‘Before the Stones: Stonehenge I as a Cometary Catastrophe Predictor,’ pp.33-48 in Natural Catastrophes During Bronze Age Civilisations: Archaeological, Geological, Astronomical and Cultural Perspectives, (eds. B.J. Peiser, T. Palmer and M.E. Bailey), British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 728 (1998). D. Steel, ‘The Fermi Paradox and 1991 VG,’ The Observatory, 118, 226-229 (1998). D. Steel, ‘The Leonid meteor showers and the genesis of the Ancient Mariner,’ Astronomy & Geophysics, 39, 20-23 (1998). D.J. Asher & D.I. Steel, ‘On the possible relation between the Tunguska bolide and Comet Encke,’ Planetary & Space Science, 46, 205-211 (1998). W.G. Elford, D.I. Steel & A.D. Taylor,’Implications for meteoroid chemistry from the height distribution of meteors,’ Advances in Space Research, 20(8), 1501-1504 (1997). D.I. Steel, R.H. McNaught, G.J. Garradd, D.J. Asher & A.D. Taylor, ‘Near-Earth asteroid 1995 HM: a highly-elongated monolith rotating under tension?’ Planetary & Space Science , 45, 1091-1098 (1997). D.I. Steel, ‘The ABC of ACM: Asteroids, Buffon and Comets,’ Planetary & Space Science , 45, 1501-1503 (1997). D.I. Steel, ‘Meteoroid orbits: Implications for near-Earth object search programs,’ Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , 822, 31-51 (1997). D.I. Steel, R.H. McNaught, G.J. Garradd, D.J. Asher & K.S. Russell, ‘AANEAS: A Valedictory Report,’ Australian Journal of Astronomy, 7, 67-77 (1997). M.A. Cervera, W.G. Elford & D.I. Steel, ‘A new method for the measurement of meteor speeds: The pre-t 0 phase technique,’ Radio Science, 32, 805-816, (1997). D. Steel, ‘Asteroid and comet impact speeds upon Mars: Significance for panspermia and the supply of organics,’ pp.197-201 in IAU Colloquium 161: Astronomical and Biochemical Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe (eds. C.B. Cosmovici, S. Bowyer and D. Werthimer), Editrice Compositori, Bologna, Italy (1997). D.I. Steel, ‘On the orbital similarity of Earth-crossing asteroids (2101) Adonis and 1995 CS,’ Planetary & Space Science, 45, 327-335 (1997). D. Steel, ‘Project Spaceguard: Will humankind go the way of the dinosaurs?’ Irish Astronomical Journal, 24, 19-30 (1997). D.I. Steel, ‘Cometary impacts on the biosphere,’ pp.209-242 in Comets and the Origin and Evolution of Life (eds. P.J. Thomas, C.F. Chyba and C.P. McKay), Springer-Verlag , New York (1997). D. Steel, ‘Meteoroid orbits,’ Space Science Reviews, 78, 507-553 (1996). D.I. Steel & D.J. Asher, ‘On the origin of Comet Encke,’ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 281, 937-944 (1996). D.J. Asher & D.I. Steel, ‘The orbital evolution of P/Machholz 2 and its debris,’ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 280, 1201-1209 (1996). D.I. Steel & D.J. Asher, ‘The orbital dispersion of the macroscopic Taurid objects,’ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 280, 806-822 (1996). A.D. Taylor, W.J. Baggaley & D.I. Steel, ‘Discovery of interstellar dust entering the Earth’s atmosphere,’ Nature, 380, 323-325 (1996). D.I. Steel, ‘The limitations of NEO-uniformitarianism,’ pp.279-292 in Worlds in Interaction: Planets and Small Bodies of the Solar System (eds. H.Rickman and M.J.Valtonen), Kluwer Publishing, Dordrecht , Holland = Earth, Moon & Planets, 72, 279-292 (1996). D. Steel, ‘Asteroid discovery efficiencies for telescope systems at Siding Spring,’ Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , 12, 202-214 (1995). D. Steel, ‘ Tunguska and the Kagarlyk meteorite,’ The Observatory, 115, 136-137 (1995). W.G.Elford, M.A.Cervera & D.I. Steel, ‘Meteor velocities: a new look at an old problem,’ Earth, Moon & Planets, 68, 257-266 (1995). D.J. Asher & D.I. Steel, ‘Theoretical meteor radiants for macroscopic Taurid Complex objects,’ Earth, Moon & Planets, 68, 155-164 (1995). D.I. Steel, ‘The association of Earth-crossing asteroids with meteoroid streams,’ Earth, Moon & Planets, 68, 13-30 (1995). D.I. Steel, ‘Collisions in the Solar System - VI. Terrestrial impact probabilities for the known asteroid population,’ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 273, 1091-1096 (1995). D. Steel, ‘SETA and 1991 VG,’ The Observatory, 115, 78-83 (1995). B.G. Marsden & D.I. Steel, ‘Warning times and impact probabilities for long-period comets,’ pp.221-239 in Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids (ed. T. Gehrels), University of Arizona Press, Tucson , Arizona (1994).