2009: 1st Planetary Defense Conference Set for April 27th

Meteor Crater, Arizona is an asteroid impact site [vid].

The International Academy of Astronautics will hold its first conference on protecting our planet from impacts by asteroids and comets the week of April 27, 2009 in Granada, Spain. The 2009 conference will bring together worldwide experts to discuss:

• Detecting and tracking asteroids and comets that might be hazardous to our planet;
• Characteristics of these objects;
• Deflecting a threatening object should one be detected;
• The nature of impact disasters, and;
• Political, legal and policy issues that must be considered as part of an overall mitigation strategy.

In late November 2008, a United Nations panel was advised to prepare protocols for a asteroid impact by creating an international decision-making program to respond to the threat of Near Earth Objects (NEOs).

The report -- Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response -- was compiled by the international Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation, a group comprised of members of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), as well as other experts tackling the NEO threat and repercussions to the Earth. The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will meet in February 2009 to take-up the international poilcy issue.