Planetary Astronomer
Assistant Professor, Villanova University
I'm a Planetary Astronomer who uses telescopes, spacecraft, and computer models to study the comets, asteroids, and Centaurs of the Solar System.
My students and I use data from telescopes, spacecraft, meteor cameras, and laboratory studies to understand the modern properties of the Solar System's "small bodies" -- its comets, asteroids, and Centaurs -- and to relate those back to the circumstances of their formation some four-and-a-half billion years ago. We're also heavily involved with efforts to study the Interstellar Objects, small bodies that formed around other stars that didn't get a chance to become exoplanets.
Originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, I received my bachelors degrees in Physics and Astronomy from UMass Amherst in 2017, my Ph.D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona in 2021, and was a postdoctoral researcher at Lowell Observatory from 2021 to 2025. Since then, I've been an assistant professor in the Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Science at Villanova University just outside of Philadelphia. When I'm not on the clock, I like riding my bike around, doing nature photography, and watching movies.
I use a variety of techniques to study the small bodies, ranging from orbital dynamics simulations to observations with Hubble to working with meteorites in the lab. As a result, my research ranges from the surfaces of near-Sun asteroids to the ice content buried at depth on the distant Centaurs. An ADS query for me is available at this link & a few active research projects and recent papers are listed below.
I'm also the Principal Investigator (PI) of a recently selected NASA ROSES grant to study the 'Dark Comets', a group of Near-Earth Objects which display comet-like drifts in their orbits without showing any comet-like tails or atmospheres. They're analogues to the first Interstellar Object (ISO) to be discovered, 1I/`Oumuamua, and I've been involved in ISO research since the discovery of the second such object (see, e.g., Kareta et al., 2020, Kareta et al., 2025c).
This section is meant to capture a few other things.
Mentoring students and getting them involved in research is my favorite part of the job -- and I've had tremendous luck working with nearly a dozen undergraduates and several graduate students in telescopic, laboratory, and theoretical projects over the years. If you're in the Philly area and are looking for internship opportunities, feel free to shoot me an email.
I've been involved in multiple spacecraft missions, from the European Space Agency's Rosetta as an undergraduate to NASA's OSIRIS-REx as a graduate student to NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) recently as a postdoc. I also took on leading roles in one of the 2024 JPL "Mission Design" Summer School sessions, where our team designed a well-recieved mission to the asteroid Ceres from scratch over about ten weeks.
Outreach to different groups, from toddlers to members of the Arizona State Legislature, is one of the better parts of being an astronomer and a personal priority. I also serve as the Press Secretary for the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences where I've worked hard to diversify our press conferences. If you're a journalist who needs a scientist to talk to for a story, email me and I'll help find you someone to chat with.
I'm most reachable by email (theodore.kareta "at" villanova.edu, backup: tkareta "at" lowell.edu) -- feel free to reach out about comets, internship opportunities, collaborations, or anything related to the Southwest. I'm also on several social media sites @teddykareta, but BlueSky is the only place I'm even slightly active.
