WASHINGTON , April 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Media are invited to attend the sixth International Academy of Astronautics Planetary Defense Conference in College Park, Maryland, April 29 – May 3. The conference, which is co-sponsored by NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, brings together experts from around the world to present the latest research on Near-Earth Objects. These celestial objects are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun and come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit, where some may pose an impact hazard to our planet.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is scheduled to deliver the conference’s opening keynote address on April 29. On Wednesday, May 1, the Planetary Society will host a free, public event featuring NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green, Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye, and other leading planetary defense experts. Conference participants also will participate in an exercise simulating efforts to address a hypothetical scenario of an asteroid impacting Earth.

The conference will highlight the development of the first-ever mission to demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique for planetary defense, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The mission is a project of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, located at the agency’s headquarters in Washington and managed by APL. The DART mission is one element of the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan that will be a topic of discussion at the conference.

Media wishing to attend the meeting, in person or remotely, must contact Margaret Simon at margaret.simon@jhuapl.edu by April 24. Those wishing to attend remotely will be provided with livestream details shortly before the conference begins on April 29.
The link will also be posted at:

http://pdc.iaaweb.org/?q=ipc

For information about the conference program and activities, visit:

http://pdc.iaaweb.org

To learn more about NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense  

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SOURCE NASA