Assessment and Mitigation of Asteroid Impact Hazards

Collecting the research presented at the Asteroid Day INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP celebrated at Barcelona on June 30th, 2015,this proceedings discusses the new era that has just started in the study and exploration of solar system minor bodies. International Asteroid Day commemorates the Tunguska event of June 30th, 1908 in order to promote the importance of dealing proactively with impact hazards from space. Multidisciplinary experts contribute to this discussion in describing the nature of comets and asteroids along with their offspring, meteorites. New missions and space projects aimed at sampling Near Earth Asteroids to bring these materials back to Earth such as Osiris-REx and Hayabusa 2 are described,as well as the AIM and DART projects to test impact deflection techniques for Potentially Hazardous Asteroids encounters.

The proceedings includes both an outreach level to popularize impact hazard, and a scientific character, compiling the most modern knowledge on these topics AND PROPOSING NEW TECHNIQUES TO GAIN INSIGHT ON THE PROPERTIES OF THESE CHALLENGING BODIES BY STUDYING METEOROIDS AND METEORITES. Asteroids, comets and meteorites are introduced with descriptions of their nature, origin, and solar system pathways.