Matthew Payne (Minor Planet Center) "Planetary Defense and the Minor Planet Center "

Matthew Payne (Minor Planet Center)
"Planetary Defense and the Minor Planet Center "
NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) coordinates and funds a variety of activities related to Near Earth Objects, including detection, characterization, impact assessment, mitigation strategies and international collaboration. I'll highlight a number of these activities, including the lessons learned from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, as well as the results expected from the forthcoming NEO Surveyor mission. I'll then discuss the Minor Planet Center's (MPC) role in these planetary defense efforts, in which the MPC acts as the central hub for the collection, verification, and dissemination of data on minor planets, comets, and outer irregular natural satellites, and functions as the backbone of the NEO network monitoring, ensuring that observations are accurately processed and shared, and enabling timely decisions in the event of a potential impact threat.