9th IAA PLANETARY DEFENSE CONFERENCE 2025

In recent years, eleven small near-Earth asteroids were discovered a few hours before colliding with Earth. They were all about one meter in diameter and they all disintegrated in the atmosphere, generating bright fireballs without causing damage. In some cases – namely 2008 TC3, 2018 LA, 2023 CX1, and 2024 BX1 – several meteorites have been recovered. In cases like these, it is not always...

Near Earth Objects (NEOs), such as asteroids on an Earth-impact trajectory, are low probability, high consequence natural hazards. To understand the consequences of Earth-impacting NEOs we rely on numerical simulations to model potential damage. In this study we investigate asteroid ocean impacts, focusing on the primary and secondary hazards such as tsunami wave generation and atmospheric...

Solar System objects impact Earth’s atmosphere daily, but their small size makes them undetectable before atmospheric entry. To better understand these impactors, we need multi-instrument observations of their disintegration phase [1].
In this study we explore several methods of measuring the pre-atmospheric mass of meteoroids with well-known trajectory, at the source of ton TNT-scale...

Near-earth objects pose a significant threat to humanity, potentially impacting a profound disruption beyond our imagination. Like volcanoes, NEO also played a significant role in shaping the surface of our planet. Whether they explode above the ground or reach the surface, NEO impacts have done significant damage. In 2013, an asteroid about 18 m in diameter called Chelyabinsk exploded while...

The Kalkkop Crater, located in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, is a deeply eroded small impact structure that was filled with lake sediments following the impact event and formed at approximately 250 ka [1]. The crater was initially drilled for petrophysical studies [2], then later re-investigated to confirm the impact hypothesis [3]. The crater was assumed to have a simple crater morphology,...

Introduction: Asteroid impacts can cause varying levels of damage across different areas, largely depending on the energy of the impactor. The complex processes that cause damage are not limited to the initial effects. First-order effects (those that are triggered directly) such as blast waves, craters, ejecta plumes, seismic activity, and thermal radiation have been the primary focus areas of...

Near-Earth object (NEO) impacts pose a significant risk to the Earth, with potential consequences ranging from localized destruction to global-scale environmental disruptions. A critical aspect of NEO consequences is the vapor and ejecta distribution, which can cause environmental consequences far from the impact site and even globally due to atmospheric effects. Using a suite of 2D and 3D...