Papers and presentations from the 2007 Planetary Defense conference. I was supposed to present here, and helped organize Session 5. At the last minute I was asked to give some presentations to the Swedish Defense Ministry.

As part of my continuing work on "extreme events" and worst cases, I've been writing on the problem of "near earth objects." In May 2002 I presented a paper in a day-long workshop at the Western Psychological Association, on the lessons that social science might bring to NEO-related issues.

In February 2002 I presented similar work at the American Association for Advancement of Science meetings.

I participated in a "Planetary Defense Conference" in February 2004, which was sponsored by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and The Aerospace Corporation. A video of my presentation is here.

Here are some interesting links on NEOs.

* Torino scale: how the risk can be judged.

* 2004 MN4, It just missed us in 2004. In 2029, it will be back.

* NASA's Ames Research Center

* Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking

* The Spacewatch Project

* NASA page on asteroids and comets

* Minor Planet Center

* Minor Planet Mailing List

* Clark Chapman's home page (with asteroid links)

* NASA page on impact risks

* Deep Impact comet mission

* Workshop on Scientific Requirements for Mitigation of Hazardous Comets and Asteroids