World Asteroid Day : everything you need to know
Table of Contents
Asteroids
Asteroid, (aka minor planet/planetoid), are small objects of diameter about 1,000 km (600 miles) or less, that orbit the Sun, most of them orbit planets (sun like) too. There are too many asteroids in the solar system. Found abundantly in the region called ‘asteroid belt’ (range from Mar’s orbit to Jupiter’s. it can be found in other places too except the Asteroid belt like in the orbital path of plantes and they follow the same path as planets.
World Asteroid Day
30th June of each year is observed as World Asteroid Day. This day is sanctioned by United Nations to spread awareness of the risks related to the impacts of asteroids. This is done by organizing public events to educate people about its risk, management, etc. By providing educational resources, communicating to the worldwide audience through various platforms.
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These events are organised at a large scale by museums, space agencies, universities, clubs and enthusiastic educators around the world for people of all ages and mostly free-of-charge. Events formats range from lectures and to short story contests to live concerts and broader community events.
Why Asteroid day
Our space is made up of so many stuffs including asteroids and comets, one of the great threats that we face is from the objects who are near our planet (close to earth’s orbit) known as Near-Earth objects (NEOs). There interaction with the earth can leads to a catastrophic distruction. The study conducted by NASA’S Center for NEO discovered over 16 000 Near Earth Asteroids.
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In 2016, with the leadership of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), United Nations sanctioned the Asteroid day to mark the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over Siberia, Russian Federation, on 30 June 1908, it was Earth’s largest asteroid impact in recorded history. The Asteroid day is observed at international level to spread awareness.
The most impactful event recorded after Tunguska was on 15th February 2013, when a large fireball (technically, called a “superbolide”), entered the atmosphere traveling with a velocity of 18.6 km/s. Although it disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk.
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According to NASA, the effective diameter of the asteroid was estimated at 18 meters and its mass at 11,000 tons approx. The approximate total impact energy of the Chelyabinsk Fireball, was 440 kilotons (in kilotons of TNT explosives, the energy parameter usually quoted for a fireball).
The work behind
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) has worked on NEOs for many years, it mainly focused to give recognition NEO impact hazard as a global issue and demand an international response. To address such hazards, includs identification of the objects which can be threats, planning to manage, spreading awareness in the interest of public safety.
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In 2014, the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) and the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) were established. The IAWN uses well-defined communication plans and protocols to assist Governments in the analysis of possible consequences of an asteroid impact and to support the planning of mitigation responses. Whereas the identification of technologies needed for NEO detection is done by an inter-space agency forum – the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG).
Asteroid Foundation
The Asteroid Day website and activities became an official program of the Asteroid Foundation after it was established in 2017. Asteroid Foundation’s motto is to promote worldwide awareness of the opportunities and challenges related to asteroids, and the emerging space economy. Apart from running the Asteroid Day programs, the Foundation also manages few local programs including the Asteroid Day Gala and Technical briefings in Luxembourg as well as undertaking other year-round programs of activities.
