The asteroid impact threat and the European NEOShield project

The near-Earth object (NEO) population includes both asteroids and comet
nuclei whose orbits approach or cross that of the Earth. They represent one of
the main topics in current planetary research, as their investigation can provide
important information on the early phases of the solar system, and on the
emergence of life on Earth. Moreover, their mining exploitation has been
envisaged. But the importance of their study also lies in the potential threat
that they pose to our planet. Indeed there is evidence of several impacts having
occurred in the past, causing at least one major mass extinction (the so called
K-T event which occurred about 65 million years ago, due to the impact of an
asteroid of ~10 km in size). The recent fall of the Chelyabinsk meteor (February
2013), which caused injuries to more than 1500 people and millions of euros in
material damages, showed that even very small objects (less than 20 m) can
produce considerable effects due to their explosion in the atmosphere.

Nonetheless, up to now there has been no a concerted international plan on
how to deal with the impact threat, and how to prepare and implement
mitigation measures. Together with complementary efforts currently in
progress from international organizations (e.g. United Nations, NASA and ESA
space agencies), the NEOShield project aims to address these problems.
Started in 2012, NEOShield is a consortium (co-financed by the European
Commission) of 11 research institutes, universities, and industrial partners, and
includes leading US and Russian space organizations. The main goal of
NEOShield is to provide solutions to the critical scientific and technical issues
that currently stand in the way of demonstrating the feasibility of the most
promising mitigation options with a test space mission. An aim is also to
formulate a global response campaign roadmap, that may be implemented
when a serious impact threat arises.

I will review our current understanding of the NEO population and their
associated impact risk, as well as the ongoing activities of the NEOShield
project.