The IAU and hazardous Near Earth Objects – a clear and present danger

The Minor Planet Center, established in 1947 by the IAU, is the international repository and clearinghouse for the world’s minor planet observations. Since 1989, CCD surveys of Near Earth Objects at ground-based astronomical observatories are operational, mainly in the USA. As of 23 August, 2018, a total of 18,545 Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and 107 Near Earth Comets (NECs) have been registered and daily updates are made publicly available on the internet by the MPC, NASA-JPL-CNEOS and ESA-SSA-NEOCC. Concern about the possibility of NEO impacts has been picked up by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS), where the IAU has observer status, and formally expressed since 1999. This led in 2014 to the formation of two international coordinating bodies for NEO detection and NEO impact mitigation: the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) and the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG). In support of these developments, the IAU 28th General Assembly, Session II, held in Beijing on 30 August 2012, adopted a Resolution (3B) recommending the establishment of an International NEO EarlyWarning System, as proposed by the IAU Division III (now Division F) Working Group on Near-Earth Objects. The GA recommended “… that the IAU National Members work with the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and the International Council for Science (ICSU), to coordinate and collaborate on the establishment of an International NEO Early Warning System, relying on the scientific and technical advice of the relevant astronomical community, whose main purpose is the reliable identification of potential NEO collisions with the Earth, and the communication of the relevant parameters to suitable decision makers of the nation(s) involved. ….” The NEO hazard issue received world-wide attention on 13 February 2013 when a NEA with an estimated size of 17 to 20 meters and an estimated mass of 11,000 tons exploded over Chelyabinsk (Russia), releasing 440 kT TNT of energy at an altitude of ∼23 km. Subsequently, on 5 December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Resolution (69/85, 9–10), noting “… the importance of information-sharing in discovering, monitoring and physically characterizing potentially hazardous near-Earth objects to ensure that all countries, in particular developing countries with limited capacity in predicting and mitigating a near-Earth object impact, are aware of potential thr