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Erik Ian Asphaug (born October 19, 1961 in Oslo, Norway) is aNorwegian Americanplanetary science professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration atUniversity of Arizona. Asphaug received hisbachelor's degree inmathematics andEnglish fromRice University and hisPhD in planetary science from theUniversity of Arizona.
Until 2012, Asphaug served as a professor at theUniversity of California at Santa Cruz.
The 1998 recipient of theHarold C. Urey Prize from theAmerican Astronomical Society,[1] Asphaug is at the forefront of scientists studying the "rubble pile" composition of mostasteroids and the implications of such composition on efforts to divert asteroids from striking the Earth. Asphaug has also worked with Urey Prize winnerRobin M. Canup to develop new theories on how the Moon was formed. Recently he has studied the genesis of diverse small planets and asteroids in the aftermath of collisions between similar-sized planetoids during the middle to late stages of terrestrial planet formation.
Asphaug was involved inNASA'sGalileo andLCROSS missions.[2][3] He is currently a principal advocate of a mission strategy to obtain a medical-like scan of the detailed interior structure of a Jupiter-family comet, which would reveal its origin, evolution and structure using techniques of 3D radar imaging andtomography.
Asteroid7939 Asphaug was named in his honor.
Asphaug is anEagle Scout.
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