Speaker
Description
Observational capabilities are one of the key “pillars” of ESA’s Planetary Defence Office activities. This presentation will highlight recent developments, important results and key objectives of our follow-up efforts.
We will begin with an overview of the status and recent additions to our global network of fast-reacting facilities, which are playing a critical role in our follow-up of the many imminent impactors discovered over the past couple of years.
We will also discuss the follow-up work we perform nightly with other facilities under our control, in both hemispheres, focusing on how we optimise target selection between high-priority Risk List objects and under-observed candidates on the NEOCP.
As usual, a significant attention is placed on astrometric precision, including a particular care in determining proper error bars not just for astrometric measurements, but also for time and temporal biases. This allows us to fully exploit the capabilities of the ADES format, ensuring that this additional crucial information reaches the orbit computation systems.
Our wide range of facilities also allow us to address specialised observational challenges, ranging from coverage of low-elongation or very fast moving targets, to unusually faint follow-up, and to targeted astrometric observations designed to enable additional physical follow-up (e.g., ensuring the ephemeris accuracy necessary for physical characterization techniques or space-based detections).
Finally, in line with the collaborative spirit of NEO observations, we always ensure our team and facilities actively participate in all campaigns and initiatives sponsored by IAWN and SMPAG, essential players in the worldwide effort towards a truly global planetary defence strategy.