Physical properties of NEOs and risks of an impact: Current knowledge and future challenges

Abstract

Someday, in a not too far away future. A potentially hazardous astronomical object, with an estimated size significantly above 10 meters, is just detected. Quite soon, the probability of its impact with the Earth in, again, a not too far away future, is found to be close to 1. We certainly want to predict with a decent accuracy the effects of the impact and, even better, to tentatively initiate a mitigation strategy. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.