Harrison Agrusa
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harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
Harrison Agrusa
@harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
41 followers 88 following 20 posts
Asteroid 28888
Postdoc at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur
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harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
Current status: gardening with a view. Had to harvest ~1/4 of my onions early because somebody has a habit of trampling on them in search of the ball…
A garden with a couple raised beds with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, courgettes, and aubergine. A dog is in one corner with a view of the Mediterranean in the other. Onions of various sizes. Mostly small because the dog trampled their stalks :)
June 25, 2025 at 5:29 PM
harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
Had a fun time being a part of this paper where we used a combination of SPH and N-body simulations to explore how asteroid satellites form from collisions.

arxiv.org/abs/2505.03325
Satellite formation around the largest asteroids
Satellites around large asteroids are preferentially found among those with the most rapid rotation and elongated shape. The taxonomic statistics are similarly skewed; in total, 13 asteroids larger th...
arxiv.org
May 7, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Harrison Agrusa
spacemarschall.net
2 hours and 4 minutes to the closest approach of Lucy with #asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson [DJ].

↔️ current distance to DJ: 100 thousand km
☀️ current phase angle: 13.98°
🪨 estimated size of DJ on L'LORRI camera: 6-10 pixels

▶️ www.whereIsLucy.space
#PlanetSci #SciComm
The image presents a dark background dominated by a series of concentric circles representing distances in thousands of kilometers (km). These circles are subtly colored in shades of teal/blue. A bright white line cuts across these circles diagonally, representing the path or trajectory of the Lucy spacecraft. A small green dot marks the "point of closest approach" of the Lucy with asteroid Donaldjohanson. At the top right, a light gray line shows the trajectory of asteroid Donaldjohanson (DJ). At the top left, text indicates the "Encounter Mode" with a small red dot possibly showing "live updates." Further text displays the name of the asteroid (Donaldjohanson), data about the encounter, including the date and time, the distance, and the phase angle. A rectangular box in the lower right contains additional information about the observation, specifically the field of view of the L'LORRI instrument and the apparent size of the object in pixels. The box also clarifies that the object's shape and exact size are not precisely known, providing an estimated diameter of 3-5 km, citing a source ("Masiero et al. 2011").
April 20, 2025 at 3:47 PM
harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
In Japan for the next 10 days for a few exciting meetings. Today and tomorrow, I am at JAXA’s ISAS for a Hayabusa2# science team meeting. What a great excuse to visit when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom!
A cherry tree in full bloom with a rocket in the background.
April 4, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Reposted by Harrison Agrusa
nickattree.bsky.social
Working up here at the Obervatoire de la Côte d'Azur, #Nice today and gave a talk on #Comet activity modelling this morning #PlanetSci.
Thanks to everyone who came and thanks very much to @harrisonagrusa.bsky.social for hosting me!
Grand railing-ed walkway of an old building with a cloudy view of a city and bay behind. Chalkboard and TV minister displaying a picture of a comet plus the talk title slides. outside the window and old building is visible. Rooftop view of a city sprawling sway to the sea. Clouds still cover part but sun is beginning to peak through. View of restaurant tables before a wide window with sweeping views of the city and blue sea, now in the sun!
March 24, 2025 at 12:53 PM
harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
Playing around with some renderings of DART impact ejecta simulations. It’s amazing what you can do with @matplotlib.org and @reboundbot.bsky.social !
March 21, 2025 at 5:00 PM
harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
Happy to announce that I’ve been selected as a participating scientist on NASA’s Lucy mission. I can’t wait to join the team and explore the Trojans! science.nasa.gov/uncategorize...
NASA Selects Participating Scientists to Join Lucy Asteroid Mission - NASA Science
NASA has selected eight participating scientists to join its Lucy mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are remnants of our early
science.nasa.gov
February 27, 2025 at 9:49 PM
harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
New (to me) handmade table and chairs found at a flea market in Nice. Restoring it now with some beeswax. €100 and will probably outlive me. This room is finally coming together!
Wooden dining table and five chairs
December 27, 2024 at 3:34 PM
harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
I decided it would be a good idea to procrastinate on job applications and play some Kerbal Space Program instead. Using a mod to play with a 1/9 scale real solar system, did a nice Voyager style mission. Here are my Jupiter and Neptune/Triton flybys :)
December 5, 2024 at 7:34 PM
harrisonagrusa.bsky.social
I found a fun Easter egg in For All Mankind. They used real DART papers as props for a scene related to altering the orbit of an asteroid! On the left is Rivkin et al. 2021 and on the right is Hirabayashi et al. 2022.
January 22, 2024 at 6:52 PM