This year鈥檚 events for will be held worldwide and online, unlike last year’s observances, which were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has made an excellent Asteroid Day , complete with 鈥淭eachable Moments, student activities, and educator guides all about asteroids and comets.”
The first was June 30, 2015. The day represents a 鈥済lobal awareness movement where people from around the world come together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet鈥� from asteroid and comet impacts.
June 30 is a significant date in the history of Earth impacts.聽On that date in 1908, according to , 鈥渁 stony (not icy) body, between 164 and 262 feet in diameter,” entered the atmosphere at around 34,000 mph. It caused a 10- to 30-megaton explosion, “equivalent to the blast energy of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, at 6 to 9 miles altitude,鈥� over Tunguska, Russia.
The Tunguska Event flattened 800 square miles and 80 million trees. It’s the largest such event of modern times, and Asteroid Day is held every June 30 as a reminder that planetary defense against asteroids and comets matters.
The Chelyabinsk impact event, in 2013, was historic due to the number of injuries and amount of damage to buildings 鈥� the most ever caused by an asteroid/meteorite event. The Chelyabinsk Event was the most documented asteroid explosion and meteorite fall ever, due to the number of videos, sound recordings, photographs and witness interviews, and the precise recovery process of associated meteorites.
Chelyabinsk also improved our knowledge of the that are smaller than a kilometer. The smaller asteroids, such as Chelyabinsk, pose a greater hazard for damage than previously thought. In December 2018, an event with 40% of the energy release of Chelyabinsk reaffirmed that such events happen more often than we would like.
The United Nations, and other space organizations are developing defensive capability and improved detection of millions of asteroids. NASA and others held a in Maryland in 2019.
And in 2021, a space-based telescope mission, , designed specifically for finding space rocks large and small 鈥� such as Chelyabinsk 鈥� was finally approved. This mission will greatly improve our ability to detect space rocks, especially those that lurk near the Sun (such as Chelyabinsk) and as a result cannot be readily seen by Earth-based telescopes.
A worldwide community of citizen astronomers in conjunction with the are actively participating in planetary defense by making real time observations using telescopes made by . I bought one of their telescopes in order to participate in their . Unistellar will event on Asteroid Day at 4 p.m. EDT. You can tune in live and watch an asteroid pass in front of a star and temporarily block it from our view 鈥� pretty cool.
A last point to consider: 鈥淭he dinosaurs are dead because they didn鈥檛 have telescopes or a space program.鈥� Once again, this phrase of mine highlights what we need to do to avoid going the way of the by an impact in the Yucat谩n Peninsula 66 million years ago.
The cosmic clock is ticking 鈥�
Asteroid Day 鈥� become part of the movement.
贵辞濒濒辞飞听聽to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and space exploration. You can email me at聽skyguyinva@gmail.com.
