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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto
NEOShield: Near-Earth Asteroid Deflection from a European perspective

Siegfried Eggl
IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris

Abstract
Catastrophic impacts of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) on our planet are one of the few natural disasters that are believed to be avoidable using current technologies. The NEOShield project as well as its successor NEOShield 2 are international efforts under European leadership intended to provide a state of the art assessment of NEA deflection capabilities. One of the most striking results in this endeavor is the discovery that uncertainties will dominate the outcome of any current deflection attempt. Conducting deflection demonstration missions as soon as possible is, thus, essential, as they offer the opportunity to test and improve our understanding of orbit deviation methods such as kinetic impacts and gravity tractors. In my presentation I will give a brief summary of proposed NEA deflection test missions and discuss how to render such efforts as cost effective and as safe as possible.

10 July 2015, 13:30

Centro de Astrofísica
Rua das Estrelas
4150-762 Porto

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

Proceed on CAUP's website|Go to IA website