Martes 14 de julio (mañana) / Tuesday 14 July (morning)
13:05-13:25h

[PDF1] - [PDF2] - [VÍDEO]

 

Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) are a potential risk for life and human assets on Earth. NEAs in the 100 to 500 m size range can cause regional devastation and disrupt the global economy. Nevertheless, contrary to earthquakes or virus pandemics, they are predictable well in advance. In the next decade, new earth- and space-based facilities -like the Large Synoptic Space Telescope and the IR space telescope NEOCam - will add up to the current effort to scrutiny the sky in search of NEAs. Their goal is to achieve 90% completion at size larger than 140 m by the end of this decade, opposite to current 30% of the estimated 25000 NEOs in that range. On the other hand, the NASA DART mission and the ESA Hera mission are collaborating in the Asteroid Impact and deflection Assessment (AIDA) concept. DART will perform a collision experiment on the secondary of the binary NEA (65803) Didymos and Hera will thoroughly study the effects of such collision. The AIDA collaboration will allow -within this decade- to understand to what extent current technology can divert an asteroid on a collision course to Earth. As a scientific added value, Hera will fully characterize the system and provide a unique insight into the formation and evolution of asteroids, the building blocks of the Solar System.