Speaker
Description
Meteor science has traditionally been done by observing short transient events for which there is no warning for. We are in an era where we detect some asteroids before they impact. And, coincidentally, these metre-scale objects are in the sweet spot for meteorite survival. Imminent impactors directly close the loop between the small Solar System body science driven by telescopes and meteor/meteorite science. In this talk I will give an outlook on how many asteroid impacts we can expect to get warning for over the next few years. I will then discuss why they are interesting objects to focus on, developing three aspects they enable: science, planetary defence, and public outreach. Finally, I will suggest ideas of what could be worthwhile infrastructure and instrumentation investments over the next decade to observe these impacts, and what strategies can be developed to involve the public as citizen scientists.