Planetary Defense Coordination Office

The Planetary Defense Coordination Office is a planetary defense organization within NASA’s Planetary Science Division. Its mission is to lead the coordination of interagency and intergovernmental efforts to plan responses to potential impact threats. Announced by NASA in January 2016, it is tasked with the job of cataloging and tracking potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets which are larger than 30 to 50 meters in diameter and coordinating an effective threat response and mitigation effort. The office will continue to utilize the polar orbiting infrared telescope NEOWISE to detect any potentially hazardous object (PHO).