Asteroid Day

Asteroid Day
Date(s)	30 June
Begins	2015
Frequency	annual
Website
asteroidday.org

Asteroid Day is an annual global awareness movement that brings people from around the world together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect our planet, our families, communities, and future generations. Asteroid Day is held on the anniversary of the June 30, 1908 Siberian Tunguska event, the largest asteroid impact on Earth in recent history.^[1][2]

It was co-founded by filmmaker Grigorij Richters, B612 Foundation COO Danica Remy, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Dr. Brian May, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist.^[3] Over 100 astronauts, scientists, technologists and artists, including Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, Peter Gabriel, Jim Lovell, Alexei Leonov, Bill Anders, Kip Thorne, Lord Martin Rees, Chris Hadfield, Rusty Schweickart and Brian Cox co-signed the Asteroid Day Declaration.^[4][5][6] Asteroid Day was officially launched on December 3, 2014.^[7]

History

In February 2014, Brian May, astrophysicist and guitarist for the rock band Queen, began working with Grigorij Richters, director of the film 51 Degrees North, the story of a fictional asteroid impact on London and the human condition resulting from such an event. May composed the music for the film.^[8][9][10] After screening the film at the 2014 Starmus Festival, Richters and May co-founded Asteroid Day in October 2014 which they officially announced during a press conference with Lord Martin Rees, Rusty Schweickart, Ed Lu, Thomas Jones, Ryan Watt and Bill Nye. The event was live streamed from the Science Museum in London, the California Academy of Sciences, New York and São Paulo.^[2]

Asteroid Day declaration

The workgroup of Asteroid Day created a signatory called "100X Declaration", which appeals to all scientists and technologists who are supporting the idea of saving the earth from asteroids, but not only specialists are asked to sign, everyone can sign this declaration.^[6][11][12]

The main three goals are:

1. Employ available technology to detect and track Near-Earth Asteroids that threaten human populations via governments and private and philanthropic organisations.

2. A rapid hundred-fold acceleration of the discovery and tracking of Near-Earth Asteroids to 100,000 per year within the next ten years.

3. Global adoption of Asteroid Day, heightening awareness of the asteroid hazard and our efforts to prevent impacts, on June 30, 2015.

Asteroid Day 2015

Self-organised events

According to the AsteroidDay.org website, over 90 events participated in global activities on June 30.^[13] 36 astronauts and cosmonauts participated in activities on the day.^[14] The general goal was to raise awareness about the threat posed by asteroid impacts. Institutions such as the Natural History Museum in Vienna,^[15] the American Natural History Museum,^[16] the California Academy of Sciences,^[17] the Science Museum in London,^[18] the SETI institute,^[19] the European Space Agency,^[20] the UK Space Agency,^[21] among others participated in educational activities, marking the first official Asteroid Day, June 30, 2015.

United Nations

In February 2016, Romanian astronaut Dumitru Prunariu and the Association of Space Explorers submitted a proposal to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations which was accepted by the subcommittee and in June 2016 the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space included the recommendation in its report. The report of the Committee will be presented for approval to the United Nations General Assembly's 71st session later in the year.

"The Committee endorsed a recommendation for the global observance of an international asteroid day annually on 30 June, to be proclaimed by the General Assembly at its 71st session later this year. An international asteroid day will raise public awareness of the asteroid impact hazard and inform the public of global communication measures in case of a credible near-Earth object threat." ^[22]

External links

• Official website

References