Near-Earth asteroids are a subset of near-Earth objects - small solar system bodies that come close to the Earth. Some of them may have a chance to hit our planet. This happened for example in Feb 2013: A small asteroid with about 20 m in diameter entered the Earth's atmosphere over the city of Chelyabinsk in Siberia. About 1500 people were hurt, most of them by shattered glass when they were watching the event from behind windows. The European Space Agency operates the so-called Planetary Defence Office, which is making an effort to mitigate the effects of such an event. The so-called Hera mission will contribute to demonstrating that we can deflect an asteroid off its collision course, if this were needed. In this lecture, the acting head of ESA's Planetary Defence Office will introduce you to the currently ongoing activities

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