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Patrick Michel
Patrick Michel (born 25 February 1970 in Saint-Tropez, France) is a French planetary scientist, Senior Researcher at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), member of the TOP team (for Theories and Observations in Planetology) within the Lagrange laboratory, itself under the supervision of Université Côte d'Azur, Côte d'Azur Observatory and CNRS, in Nice (France). He is also a Global Fellow of the University of Tokyo.
Michel began his advanced education with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and Space Techniques in 1993 where after he moved to the study of asteroids. He received his PhD in 1997 for a thesis titled "Dynamical evolution of Near-Earth Asteroids".
He is specialist of the physical properties and the collisional and dynamical evolution of asteroids. His researches focus on the collisional processes between asteroids, the origin of near-Earth objects, binary asteroids, their physical properties, their response to various processes (impacts, tidal encounters, shaking) as a function of their internal and surface properties, and the risks of impacts with the Earth.
His work was notably the first to produce simulations that fully represent the process of an asteroid's destruction by collision with another object, calculating not only the fragmentation of the asteroid due to the impact but also the gravitational interactions of the fragments formed and their possible re-accumulations. The numerical simulations by Patrick Michel and his colleagues confirmed in particular that asteroid families (around twenty distinct groups of objects identified in the region between Mars and Jupiter, known as the asteroid belt) are each the result of the destruction of a parent body (up to several hundred kilometres in diameter). They also suggest that most second-generation asteroids (derived from a larger body) are aggregates rather than monolithic rocks, which explains the low bulk densities measured by observations.
His results have been the subject of more than 600 publications, 108000 reads and 18000 citations in refereed international journals, and have been featured on the covers of both Science in 2001 and Nature in 2003.
In particular, Patrick contributed to the development of a digital model of porous body fragmentation (comets, carbonaceous asteroids), validated by laboratory impact experiments conducted in Japan. His research published in Nature in 2008 also provided an explanation for the origin of small binary asteroids, which make up 15% of the asteroid population, and their particular physical properties, notably the shape of the central body.
Michel is also deeply involved in several space missions and mission concepts devoted to the investigation of the Solar System small bodies and asteroid hazard, also known as planetary defence.
He belongs to the Near-Earth Object Mission Advisory Panel (NEOMAP) mandated by European Space Agency (ESA) to recommend space missions devoted to a better understanding of the impact threat. In 2004, the committee recommends the Don Quijote mission concept, which consists in making a test of asteroid deflection by using the technique of an artificial impactor. This mission was studied at ESA until 2007.
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Patrick Michel
Patrick Michel (born 25 February 1970 in Saint-Tropez, France) is a French planetary scientist, Senior Researcher at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), member of the TOP team (for Theories and Observations in Planetology) within the Lagrange laboratory, itself under the supervision of Université Côte d'Azur, Côte d'Azur Observatory and CNRS, in Nice (France). He is also a Global Fellow of the University of Tokyo.
Michel began his advanced education with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and Space Techniques in 1993 where after he moved to the study of asteroids. He received his PhD in 1997 for a thesis titled "Dynamical evolution of Near-Earth Asteroids".
He is specialist of the physical properties and the collisional and dynamical evolution of asteroids. His researches focus on the collisional processes between asteroids, the origin of near-Earth objects, binary asteroids, their physical properties, their response to various processes (impacts, tidal encounters, shaking) as a function of their internal and surface properties, and the risks of impacts with the Earth.
His work was notably the first to produce simulations that fully represent the process of an asteroid's destruction by collision with another object, calculating not only the fragmentation of the asteroid due to the impact but also the gravitational interactions of the fragments formed and their possible re-accumulations. The numerical simulations by Patrick Michel and his colleagues confirmed in particular that asteroid families (around twenty distinct groups of objects identified in the region between Mars and Jupiter, known as the asteroid belt) are each the result of the destruction of a parent body (up to several hundred kilometres in diameter). They also suggest that most second-generation asteroids (derived from a larger body) are aggregates rather than monolithic rocks, which explains the low bulk densities measured by observations.
His results have been the subject of more than 600 publications, 108000 reads and 18000 citations in refereed international journals, and have been featured on the covers of both Science in 2001 and Nature in 2003.
In particular, Patrick contributed to the development of a digital model of porous body fragmentation (comets, carbonaceous asteroids), validated by laboratory impact experiments conducted in Japan. His research published in Nature in 2008 also provided an explanation for the origin of small binary asteroids, which make up 15% of the asteroid population, and their particular physical properties, notably the shape of the central body.
Michel is also deeply involved in several space missions and mission concepts devoted to the investigation of the Solar System small bodies and asteroid hazard, also known as planetary defence.
He belongs to the Near-Earth Object Mission Advisory Panel (NEOMAP) mandated by European Space Agency (ESA) to recommend space missions devoted to a better understanding of the impact threat. In 2004, the committee recommends the Don Quijote mission concept, which consists in making a test of asteroid deflection by using the technique of an artificial impactor. This mission was studied at ESA until 2007.