Near-Earth asteroids that have the potential to impact on our planet essentially on the orbit in which they are discovered, without any substantial perturbation preceding the impact, are often called 'immediate impactors', and deserve special efforts to improve their observational record. Even in cases in which the extension of the observed arc allows to exclude a direct collision, however,...
The MPC NEO Confirmation Page (NEOCP) plays a crucial role in the discovery and follow up of Near-Earth Objects. Once a candidate new object has been observed and observations have been posted to the Minor Planet Center (MPC), the MPC’s aim is to process the object in the shortest amount of time. The goal is to give the community a reasonable and reliable area in the sky in which the object...
It typically takes a few days for a newly discovered near-Earth asteroid to be officially recognized as a real object and designated by the Minor Planet Center. During this time, the tentative discovery is published on the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page until additional observations confirm that the object is in fact a real asteroid rather than an observational artifact or an artificial...
The European Space Agency (ESA) developed an independent imminent impactor warning service, called Meerkat Asteroid Guard (Meerkat for short). The fully automated system is running 24/7 and analyses newly discovered near-Earth objects, published on the NEO Confirmation Page of the Minor Planet Center. Meerkat uses the Systematic Ranging technique to compute a preliminary orbit and to detect...
The imminent impactors are a challenge for the overall system, because we expect they are generally small in size and discovered just a few days or even few hours before the impact, as was the case for 2008 TC3, 2014 AA and others. The time, therefore, is the biggest concern and the system must react quickly and efficiently, trying to involve as soon as possible worldwide professionals but...
NEOROCKS (Near-Earth Object Rapid Observation, Characterization and Key Simulations) is a European project funded by the UE Horizon 2020 programme whose aim is to increase our knowledge of the NEO physical characterization through observations and data dissemination. The organization of a “Rapid Response Experiment” relying on existing European assets is one of the project key activities and...
Although Pan-STARRS is yet to discover an impacting asteroid, it has discovered a number of close-approaching asteroids. Several of these will be examined as case studies. Close approaching or impacting asteroids may have unremarkable digest scores as they approach Earth, which compounds the discovery problem, since they may not be listed on the Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page (NEOCP). The...
We present the communications architecture for the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) and its suitability as a rapid responder in the global network of NEO detection and tracking. ATLAS is a worldwide system of wide-field telescopes dedicated to searching for hazardous asteroids, especially objects on close-approach or final trajectories. Since its construction in 2015,...
Over the past few years ESA's Planetary Defence Office has developed a network of small to medium sized telescopes with nearly-global coverage. This network is composed by ESA-owned and operated telescopes, but also by external facilities to which our team has access via dedicated contracts, scientific collaborations, institutional agreements or traditional proposals.
The goal of such network...
One of the major goals of ESA’s Planetary Defence Office is to discover Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) imminently before impact. Currently existing survey telescopes include ATLAS, Pan-STARRS and Catalina are contributing to a large number of new NEO discoveries each year, but to date, only five NEOs have been discovered before impact.
We present simulations carried out using a theoretical...
Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) has discovered three of the five imminent impactors detected to date. While the principal focus of CSS and other contemporary near-Earth object (NEO) surveys is to discover unknown larger members of the NEO population, CSS has demonstrated sensitivity to some smaller, nearby objects including imminent impactors during certain phases of their final approach. I will...
The Rubin Observatory is a new U.S. NSF/DOE-funded facility on Cerro Pachón, Chile, housing the 8.4m Simonyi Survey Telescope. The Observatory is in the final stage of construction, expected to achieve first light and enter commissioning in September 2023. Over a ten-year period Rubin will execute the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Enabled by its 9.6 square degree field of view, a...
The Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager (MTG LI) will perform the geostationary detection of lightning optical emissions from space. Such radiation is produced by electric discharges within or below a cloud and reaches the cloud top after multiple scattering. The LI is designed to sense this cloud-top emission within a 1.9 nm wide band centred on 777.4 nm, with a 4.5 km resolution at...
The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument onboard the GOES 16 and 17 satellites has been shown to be capable of detecting bolides in the atmosphere. Due to its large, continuous field of view and immediate public data availability, GLM provides a unique opportunity to detect a large variety of bolides, including those in the 0.1 to 3 m diameter range that complements current...
NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) was established to manage NASA’s planetary defense-related projects and coordinate activities across multiple U.S. agencies (along with international efforts) to plan appropriate responses to the potential asteroid impact hazard. PDCO currently funds four ground-based survey capabilities (and re-purposed astrophysics survey instrument in...
Only a handful of proxy strength measures are available for decameter and smaller NEAs. One data source which can address the question of meter-sized NEO structural strength is the recent release of over 800 light curves for bolides detected by US Government sensors since 1988. A subset of these events (about 270) also have trajectory, speed and height at peak brightness information. These...
Since 2005, the AMS (American Meteor Society) has operated an online fireball program that to date has logged over 280,000 witness reports and more than 35,000 confirmed fireball events. The AMS online fireball report form was specifically designed for use by people with no astronomy experience who witnessed a fireball, a bolide or a suspected similar phenomenon. In 2013 the AMS extended the...
The AllSky7 Fireball Network is a global, amateur-driven camera network to record the full sky 24/7. It was initiated by Mike Hankey in 2018 and consists meanwhile of a number of local networks in different regions of the world. With about 90 stations, the European AllSky7 network is the biggest and most dense installation to date. We aim at an average distance of 100 to 150 km between...
The NEar real-time MOnitoring System, NEMO, aims to collect and provide information on bright fireballs from objects entering Earth´s atmosphere from space. It was developed at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, and then handed over to ESA where it is currently being operated. One of the main objectives of NEMO is to provide information in near real-time on fireball events which caused...
