ACM 2012 will bring together experts on small-bodies studies from around the world and it will be the first meeting held after several significant and anticipated events, like the sample return of the "Hayabusa" mission and the expected result of "Dawn". ACM 2012 will highlight the research currently being conducted, encourage discussion among researchers in various areas, and identify new avenues of research.

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

Topics

• TNOs and Centaurs
• Observations of latest comets and meteor showers
• NEO hazard and searches: Close-passing asteroids including 2005 YU55, Pan-STARRS and other new surveys
• Space-borne observation of small bodies: AKARI, Herschel, WISE, HST, etc.
• Lutetia by Rosetta
• 103P/Hartley 2 by EPOXI and other observations
• 9P/Tempel 1 by Stardust-NExT and other observations
• Hayabusa (Itokawa) and Stardust (Wild 2) sample return missions
• Vesta by Dawn and other observations including HED meteorite studies
• Other small-body missions (New Horizons, Hayabusa-2, OSIRIS-Rex, MarcoPolo-R, etc.)
• Recent meteorite falls including 2008 TC3 and the Almahata Sitta meteorite
• Meteors and dust
• Dynamics and interrelations
• Compositional studies from observations and laboratory experiments
• Internal structure of small bodies, including presence/formation of satellites
• Impact processes
• Surface processes and geology of small bodies
• Origin of the solar system and small bodies
• Water, organics, and astrobiology of small bodies
• Human exploration of NEOs
• Other ...