Erik Asphaug is a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona, a member of the faculty of the world-renowned Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, and was part of the team behind NASA’s successful Galileo and LCROSS missions. A winner of the prestigious Harold C. Urey Prize from the American Astronomical Society, recognizing outstanding achievements by a young planetary scientist, his areas of expertise include the geology of comets and asteroids and the giant impacts that formed the planets and moons. He was also a professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz. He lives with his family in Arizona.