Letters of Intent for 2011

LoI 10:
Asteroids, Comets, Meteors

Topics

• Near-Earth Object searches:Pan-STARRS and other newly founded surveys
• Results of Hayabusa sample return analyses
• Observations of latest Comets
• Updates on Dawn, Rosetta, New Horizons, and planned missions to small bodies
• Compositional studies of asteroids and comets
• Small body populations: evolution and dynamics
• Interdisciplinary studies: How do asteroids/comets/meteors interrelate?
• Internal structure of small bodies, including presence/formation of satellites
• Origin of the solar system, as deduced from small bodies studies
• Small body impact hazards
• Laboratory studies of small-body processes and constituents

Rationale

The Asteroids, Comets, Meteors (ACM) meeting is the premier international gathering of scientists who study small bodies. The ACM series began in 1983 in Uppsala, Sweden, as a means of bringing together different groups within the asteroid, comet, and meteor communities who do not often have the opportunity to interact. From this first ACM meeting, a regular conference began. The conference now takes place every three years, and it is the pre-eminent meeting for small-bodies research, with attendance usually in excess of 400. The 2011 ACM meeting will be the 11th in the series and will be the first time in Asian Region.

The scope of presentations and discussion is broad, including all topics related to asteroids, comets, and meteors. Examples include discovery and cataloguing of objects, observations of meteor showers by radar, modeling the gas production of comets, and plans for future asteroid sample returns.

ACM 2011 is expected to bring together experts on small-bodies studies from around the world. It will be the first time this meeting will be held since several significant and anticipated events have come to pass. These include the return of Hayabusa mission, and the expected result of Dawn, as well as many others. ACM 2011 will highlight the research currently being conducted, encourage discussion among researchers in various areas, and identify new avenues of research.