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.
Observers Twitter feed
Tweets from some of our observing signatories and other active asteroid observers.
A Twitter List by SBNarchiveSignatories Twitter feed
Tweets from some of our institutional signatories (may have non-asteroid news as well).
A Twitter List by SBNarchiveNEO News
Timing Campaign -- 2019 XS
(04 Oct 2021) This will be a short campaign to observe 2019 XS at its close approach in early November. Registered observers will have their MPC submissions reviewed for any timing issues.
Read More: 2019 XS Timing Campaign
Latest from IAWN
Illustration of linear least squares.
Courtesy: Oleg Alexandrov, Wikimedia Commons
Understanding Orbital Uncertainties in the Context of Impact Predictions
(Aug 2021) II: Orbit Fitting-Least Squares Technique for Orbit Estimation
Second in a series of articles detailing the concept of orbital uncertainties as it relates to impact predictions. Celestial mechanics can be a complicated subject, but here we'll try to distill some of these difficulties and render the subject a bit more transparent.
Read More: Least Squares Technique for Orbit Estimation
Close Approaches
Asteriod designation: 2021 VS11
Discovery station: Mt. Lemmon Survey
Close approach date (UTC): 2021 11 07.42
Close approach distance (× lunar distance): 0.79
Discovery announcement
Latest orbit & observations