EURONEAR: First results

The European Near Earth Asteroid Research (EURONEAR) is a project which envisions to build a coordinated network which will follow-up and recover potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) and near earth asteroids (NEAs). We aim to include in EURONEAR two automated 1 m telescopes located in Chile and Europe, in addition to other non-permanent facilities. Astrometry will be the main aim of the project in order to secure and follow-up newly discovered NEAs, also to recover PHAs at their second or following oppositions, while photometry of bright PHAs will bring information on their physical properties. In this paper, first we review briefly the existent and past NEAs programs. Next, we include the results obtained in 2006 from three observing runs at Pic du Midi using the 1 m telescope, Haute-Provence employing the 1.2 m telescope, and Bucharest using a small 23 cm telescope. These add a total of 153 positions for 16 PHAs and NEAs, which were accepted by Minor Planet Center. Recently, a 1 m telescope was allocated by ESO in La Silla to be automated and used as the Southern dedicated facility by EURONEAR.