The International Asteroid Warning Network

ESO welcomed NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Planetary Defence Coordination Office, ESA — European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre, and astronomers from around the world on 12–13 September for meetings of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), and Space Missions Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG), which are responsible for coordinating global efforts of astronomers, observatories and space agencies to detect and characterise Near-Earth Objects with a potential to impact Earth, and plan space missions to prevent or mitigate an impact. Tracking Near-Earth Objects is a major focus for the collaboration between ESO and ESA. ESO uses the Very Large Telescope to refine the orbits and characterise NEOs that are very faint or high on the risk list.