Asteroid impact monitoring

• Main Author: Milani A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Astronomical Observatory, Department of Astronomy, Belgrade 2006-01-01
• Series: Serbian Astronomical Journal
• Subjects: Asteroids; impacts; orbit determination
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-698X/2006/1450-698X0672001M.pdf

Some asteroids and comets with Earth-crossing orbit may impact our planet, thus we need to be able to identify the cases which could have a dangerous close approach within a century. This must be done as soon as such an asteroid is discovered, allowing for follow up observations which might contradict the impact possibility, and in the worst case to organize mitigation, possibly including deflection. The mathematical problem of predicting possible impacts, even with very low probabilities, has been solved by our group in the last few years. This paper presents the basic theory of these impact prediction, and discusses how they are practically used in the impact monitoring systems now operational, in particular the CLOMON2 robot of the Universities of Pisa and Valladolid.