The objective of the General Session is to accommodate abstracts that do not align with the themes of any existing sessions within the Small Bodies Program Group. Please note that all submitted abstracts may be reallocated to a different session at the discretion of the respective session chairs.

This session focuses on the connections between various types of small bodies in the Solar System, including comets, asteroids, and centaurs, while emphasising their activity at different distances from the Sun. Special attention will be given to analysing the activity of small bodies in the context of their evolution, as well as addressing open questions and unresolved issues in this field. The session will also highlight the importance of monitoring and archival data, which serve as resources for current analysis and as crucial elements for long-term observations of small bodies. Furthermore, such data enable the study of changes in activity over time and provide essential context for understanding evolutionary processes.
Various research methods for studying small bodies will be discussed, with the use of data from new space missions and modelling techniques contributing to a more accurate understanding of the mechanisms behind their activity, as well as to the development of new approaches to studying the origin and evolution of small bodies in the Solar System.

More than ten thousand tons of extraterrestrial objects, ranging in size from a few microns to a few meters in diameter, enter Earth’s atmosphere annually. A small fraction of these objects yields free samples of extraterrestrial matter—meteorites—for laboratory study. The majority of these objects burn up or ablate completely in the Earth’s atmosphere, appearing as visible meteors in the night sky. By recording meteor activity, recovering meteoritic material, and modeling the processes of atmospheric entry, ablation, and fragmentation, we can directly measure the flux, physical properties, and compositional diversity of small planetary impactors. The rapid advancement of observational, modeling, and analytical techniques has elevated meteoritical science to one of the primary avenues for investigating the nature and origin of interplanetary matter and its parent bodies. This session aims to serve as a platform for presenting fundamental results and innovative concepts spanning atmospheric observations, numerical modeling, meteorite recovery, and laboratory-based geochemical and physical characterization of impacting object remnants. In doing so, the session seeks to foster interaction across distinct communities and to highlight the interdisciplinary impact of ongoing and future research efforts within the broader planetary science framework.

The section "Advances in Photopolarimetry and Spectropolarimetry of Solar System Small Bodies" highlights recent progress and breakthroughs in the application of these techniques to study small bodies, including asteroids, comets, moons, trans-Neptunian objects, and interplanetary dust. Photopolarimetry and spectropolarimetry provide critical insights into surface textures, particle sizes, porosities, and compositions, offering constraints on the physical, compositional, and dynamical evolution of these objects. We welcome abstract submissions on advancements in observational, numerical, and laboratory techniques, as well as innovative approaches for extracting and analyzing data, including new methodologies in photometric, polarimetric, and spectropolarimetric observations, advances in modeling, data reduction algorithms, and analysis pipelines, including machine learning, laboratory measurements of optical, polarimetric, and scattering properties, and software or web-based tools for collaborative data sharing and interpretation. This section aims to foster interdisciplinary discussions and encourage novel approaches that enhance our understanding of the physical properties, activity, and evolution of small bodies in the Solar System.

The goal of this session is to cover numerical simulations, artificial intelligence techniques and relevant laboratory investigations related to the Small Bodies (comets, KBOs, rings, asteroids, meteorites, dust), their formation and evolution, and the instruments of their exploration. This session is specially focused on the interdisciplinary approach in the development of models (formal descriptions of physical phenomena), experiments (on ground and in micro-gravity), artificial intelligence techniques (particularly machine learning) and mathematical simulations (computational methods and algorithms of solution) of various astrophysical phenomena: (i) dusty gas cometary atmospheres; (ii) volcanic activity on icy satellites (e.g. Enceladus and Io); (iii) planetary body formation (e.g. via pebbles growth), and planetesimal dynamics.

This session will include an introduction and discussion of new and/or existing laboratory studies in simulated space-like environments and models, experimental techniques, computational methods that can address the results of analytical, experimental and numerical analysis (with respect to computational methods and algorithms of solution) on the above described studies.

Abstracts on thermophysical evolution models of small bodies interiors as well as on the modeling of atmosphere and exosphere are welcome.

Observations of Interstellar Objects (ISOs) passing through the solar system allow for the direct examination of planetesimals from other star systems. The passage of the third known interstellar object (ISO), 3I/ATLAS, through the solar system has produced the largest set of spacecraft observations for any comet or ISO to date, with observations were obtained from a total of 24 spacecraft to date, including interplanetary spacecraft, a number of solar probes, and 6 astronomical space telescopes. This session invites presentations on science results from terrestrial and spacecraft observations of all three known ISOs, on how the lessons learned from their observation can be applied to future interstellar targets of opportunity, and on plans for future ISO interceptor missions.

The asteroids in particular and the asteroid-comet-dwarf planet continuum in general bear the signature of the birth of the solar system. Their observed properties allow for testing theories regarding the evolution of the solar system's planetary objects and of their prospective development. Additional important insights into this exciting field of research are provided by the laboratory investigations of the samples delivered to the Earth in the form of meteorites and by sophisticated numerical models.
The session will gather researchers of different communities for a better understanding of the evolution and properties of small bodies, ranging from planetesimals or cometesimals to icy moons, and including meteorite parent bodies. It will address recent progresses made on physical and chemical properties of these objects, their interrelations and their evolutionary paths by observational, experimental, and theoretical approaches.
We welcome contributions on the studies of the processes on and the evolution of specific parent bodies of meteorites, investigations across the continuum of small bodies, including comets and icy moons, ranging from local and short-term to global and long-term processes, studies of the surface dynamics on small bodies, studies of exogenous and endogenous driving forces of the processes involved, as well as statistical and numerical impact models for small bodies observed closely within recent space missions (e.g., AIDA, Hayabusa2#, Lucy, New Horizons, OSIRIS-APEX).

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) is entering its operational phase and will provide deep, wide, multi-band, and high-cadence observations of the Solar System over a decade-long baseline. While LSST will transform population-level studies, this session extends beyond general survey results and catalog-driven analyses.
The session focuses on contributions that link LSST discoveries to physical interpretation and mission-relevant applications. Emphasis is placed on time-domain observations that constrain activity, surface evolution, fragmentation, rotational, and non-gravitational dynamics, together with their implications for mission planning, including target selection and coordinated follow-up.
Contributions addressing survey-to-mission pathways are particularly encouraged, including methodological advances for extracting physically interpretable, mission-relevant parameters from large time-domain datasets. The session also welcomes studies of rare or non-standard transient phenomena, such as anomalous small bodies, “dark comets,” and statistical searches for compact dark-matter flybys, with emphasis on robust observational constraints.
At the interface between LSST discoveries and mission-enabling applications, the session highlights LSST’s role as a pathfinder for future planetary missions through reflecting the emergence of interconnected, time-domain Solar System science, in which discovery and quantitative physical characterisation increasingly proceed in parallel.

Carbon-bearing matter with a wide range in molecular size and structure is found throughout our Solar System. It ranges from simple molecules like CO2 in Venus’ atmosphere to complex mixtures of carbonaceous phases found in Titan or on the Martian surface. The widespread nature and diversity of carbon-based molecules leaves us wondering: How did they form and how do environmental processes transform them? Did this chemical complexity emerge in the Solar System or is it inherited from pre-Solar stages – or perhaps a combination of both? Can organic molecules be used to decipher physical conditions, chemical transformations, and formation histories of planetary bodies and of the Solar System itself? How does the inventory of organic matter influence the emergence and evolution of habitable worlds?

Addressing these complex questions requires a multifaceted and collaborative approach. We therefore invite scientists from all backgrounds and disciplines studying carbon chemistry and its evolution, from primitive bodies to rocky planets and habitable worlds. Whether extracting organic molecules from meteorites, observing KBOs with JWST, analyzing the composition of Ceres as measured by Dawn or future missions, investigating ancient Martian lakes with rovers, simulating hydrothermal processes in asteroid parent bodies, or modeling the Venusian clouds … — all are welcome to contribute to this session to help understand the role and fate of carbon-based matter and to pave the way for future space exploration missions.

Collisional processes are integral mechanisms that both shape the final configuration of the Solar System, and modify planetary surfaces and small bodies from its birth until today.
This session aims at understanding planetary impact processes at all scales, in terms of impact cratering and ejecta dynamics, crater distribution and crater chronology, material mixing, shock metamorphism and other geochemical consequences, ejecta-atmosphere interactions, impact induced climatic and environmental effects, and biotic responses.
We welcome oral and poster presentations across this broad range of studies about natural or artificial impact collision phenomena on planetary surfaces and small bodies. In particular, abstracts on impact modelling, impact laboratory experiments, geologic and structural mapping, petrographic and geochemical analysis of impact products, as well as remote sensing observations from space missions to planets and small bodies. We also welcome the examination of competing hypotheses for the giant impact formation of terrestrial and outer solar system bodies. Finally, we also support abstracts investigating the DART impact, whose outcome will be observed by HERA few months after this conference.

The two small Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, are crucial targets to improve our understanding of planetary system formation and evolution. Their origin remains highly debated, with hypotheses ranging from their gravitational capture as primitive asteroids to their formation through a giant impact.

In the context of the upcoming Japanese led MMX mission, to be launched in autumn 2026, this session invites scientific presentations providing new findings with respect to Phobos and Deimos, or comparative studies with respect to other small bodies of the solar system currently visited by other space missions.
Contributions from various scientific disciplines are invited, including remote sensing, laboratory experiments, numerical modeling, and mission science, to investigate the physical and compositional properties of the Martian moons. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, spectroscopic observations, surface morphology, regolith properties, internal structure, orbital dynamics, and space weathering processes. A goal is to further understand the needs and requirements for upcoming observations and to discover interdisciplinary aspects of interest. Special attention will also be given to recently acquired datasets from spacecraft observations, as well as to new mission concepts and instrument developments designed to explore these two bodies. The session seeks to advance our understanding of Phobos and Deimos, providing new insights into their origin.

The session invites abstracts on the dynamical properties of asteroids, meteoroids, Kuiper belt objects, Interplanetary dust to Kuiper belt objects, and beyond, Oort cloud, comets, interstellar dust, and Interstellar Objects. Contributions providing results based on observations, modelling or laboratory investigations are welcome.

Asteroids preserve a record of the formation and evolution of the Solar System, encoded in their composition and physical properties. Over the past decades, significant progress has been achieved through a combination of telescopic observations, laboratory analyses of meteorites, and in-situ measurements by space missions. These complementary approaches provide critical constraints on asteroid mineralogy, surface processes, internal structure, and evolutionary pathways. The aim of this session is to bring together observational and experimental studies addressing the composition and physical characteristics of asteroids across different populations.

The study of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) is essential today, because as they probably have delivered water and prebiotic elements on early Earth, they can also pose a threat to human civilization. The overall majority of the 3000 new-NEA discoveries each year represent small asteroids (< 150 m). Nonetheless, those can still represent a serious menace toward our planet, causing damages on a regional scale. This is why planetary defense is a task concerning the whole of humanity.

This session explores the critical synergies between the three pillars of planetary defense:

- Observations: We’ll discuss the latest advancements in ground-based surveys and space-borne telescopes tasked with finding and tracking potentially hazardous objects and virtual impactors.

- Modelling: We will cover the computational physics of impact effects, orbital mechanics, and the structural analysis of rubble-pile versus monolithic asteroids.

- Space missions: We will review lessons learned from recent missions, such as DART/LICIACube, and look forward to the next generation of spacecrafts, such as Hera, OSIRIS-APEX, RAMSES and DESTINY+.

Electromagnetic scattering phenomena play a key role in determining the properties of Solar System surfaces based on observations using different techniques and in a variety of wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to the radio. This session will promote a general advancement in the exploitation of observational and experimental techniques to characterize radiative transfer in complex particulate media. Abstracts are solicited on advances in numerical methods to extract relevant information from imagery, photometry, and spectroscopy in solid phase, reference laboratory databases, photometric modeling, interpreting features on planetary surfaces, mixing/unmixing methods, AI and machine learning, software and web service applications.

Planetary regoliths play a key role in shaping the evolution, mechanical response, and exploration of celestial bodies across the Solar System. Understanding the behaviour of regolith materials in varying gravitational, thermal, and atmospheric conditions is essential for interpreting surface processes, understanding planetary origin and evolution, and for supporting future robotic and human exploration.
This session focuses on the mechanical, geotechnical, dynamical (flow) and thermophysical properties of regolith on planetary bodies such as the Moon, Mars, asteroids, comets, and natural satellites. We welcome contributions based on laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical analyses, in addition to studies using in-situ, remote sensing, or returned sample data and simulants.
The session aims to provide a forum for advancing our understanding of regolith physics across planetary environments and for enhancing connections between disciplines: planetary science, granular physics, and geotechnical engineering. Interdisciplinary approaches that bridge experiments, modelling, and observations are encouraged and we particularly encourage early career scientists to submit an abstract for an oral presentation.