Our Mission
IAWN was established (2013) as a result of the UN-endorsed recommendations for an international response to a potential NEO impact threat, to create an international group of organizations involved in detecting, tracking, and characterizing NEOs. The IAWN is tasked with developing a strategy using well-defined communication plans and protocols to assist Governments in the analysis of asteroid impact consequences and in the planning of mitigation responses.
Currently, IAWN includes members from Europe, Asia, South and North America.
NEO News
Logo of Northolt Branch Observatories
Courtesy: Northolt Branch Observatories
Welcoming Northolt Branch Observatories to IAWN
(Jun 2019) IAWN would like to extend a warm welcome to Northolt Branch Observatories. Earlier this week they submitted a formal request and it has been accepted by the Steering Committee. Northolt Branch operates three facilities with observatory codes Z80, Z48, and Z37 that specialize in asteroid and comet astrometry. The location of the observatories ...
Campaigns
1999 KW4 on 9 May 2019
Credit: Frédéric Vachier, Jerome Berthier (Observatoire de Paris Meudon, CNRS), Marco Micheli, Rüdiger Jehn (ESA NEOCC), A. Klotz (IRAP), J.-P. Teng, A. Peyrot, P. Thierry (Observatoire
des Makes, La Réunion)
1999 KW4 Observing Campaign
(May 2019) The Binary near-Earth asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4 will fly by the Earth at a distance of about 5 million km (about 13 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon) on May 25, 2019. IAWN is organizing a campaign to observe 1999 KW4 during its close-approach. While 1999 KW4 is relatively well-characterized binary system, this asteroid serves as a reasonable analog to prepare for other binary NEAs, and the campaign will see what resources might be brought to bear on a relatively short notice. The campaign will also help fine-tune plans to observe/support the Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission impact into the Didymos system.
Close Approaches
Asteriod designation: 2019 KT
Discovery station: Mt. Lemmon Survey
Close approach date (UTC): 2019 05 28.16
Close approach distance (× lunar distance): 0.85
Discovery announcement
Latest orbit & observations