Nature & Environment
Asteroid Day 2016 Recap: 'We Can Stop Asteroid From Hitting Earth' Founder Says
Michael Finn
First Posted: Jul 04, 2016 09:03 AM EDT
Asteroid Day, which is on its second year, aims to raise profile to asteroid hitting the earth kind of threat. Its primary objective is to focus on public awareness about asteroid impact and what humanity can do about it.
Grigorij Richters, the founder of the global movement Asteroid Day wants people to realize that the Earth faces threats every day from ultraviolet rays, Gamma rays, small fragments of rocks and ice, and Armageddon like events such as asteroid hitting the planet. According to Richers, "Asteroid Day itself isn't going to save the planet, it's the scientists, the men and women working day and night in the field, that we are here to support."
The Asteroid Day had 200 events in over 60 countries, which tackled on how people can deal with asteroids. Some notable speakers and asteroid advocates including Brian May from the band Queen and former astronaut Chris Hadfield.
The Asteroid Day campaign this year is preparedness. Proposals were submitted during the simultaneously events include changing of the trajectory of an asteroid so it would miss Earth. Other plans include positioning a large spacecraft above the asteroid and use its own gravity to slightly pull the asteroid off its course, calling it gravity tractor, CNN reported.
NASA and ESA testing their Asteroid Impact and Deflection Mission through putting an impactor to the asteroid to change its course is another proposal. The organizers want to make it clear that asteroid impact is as important as climate change and natural disasters; hence offering the public enough information on why people should be giving importance to the occurrence's possibility, Space reported.
Asteroid Day itself is a reminder of the anniversary of the largest recorded asteroid impact in recent history, the Tunguska Impact in Siberia that happened June 30, 1908. The event resulted to the flattening of a 770 square miles of forest. However, no asteroids are currently in the Earth's path according to experts.
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First Posted: Jul 04, 2016 09:03 AM EDT
Asteroid Day, which is on its second year, aims to raise profile to asteroid hitting the earth kind of threat. Its primary objective is to focus on public awareness about asteroid impact and what humanity can do about it.
Grigorij Richters, the founder of the global movement Asteroid Day wants people to realize that the Earth faces threats every day from ultraviolet rays, Gamma rays, small fragments of rocks and ice, and Armageddon like events such as asteroid hitting the planet. According to Richers, "Asteroid Day itself isn't going to save the planet, it's the scientists, the men and women working day and night in the field, that we are here to support."
The Asteroid Day had 200 events in over 60 countries, which tackled on how people can deal with asteroids. Some notable speakers and asteroid advocates including Brian May from the band Queen and former astronaut Chris Hadfield.
The Asteroid Day campaign this year is preparedness. Proposals were submitted during the simultaneously events include changing of the trajectory of an asteroid so it would miss Earth. Other plans include positioning a large spacecraft above the asteroid and use its own gravity to slightly pull the asteroid off its course, calling it gravity tractor, CNN reported.
NASA and ESA testing their Asteroid Impact and Deflection Mission through putting an impactor to the asteroid to change its course is another proposal. The organizers want to make it clear that asteroid impact is as important as climate change and natural disasters; hence offering the public enough information on why people should be giving importance to the occurrence's possibility, Space reported.
Asteroid Day itself is a reminder of the anniversary of the largest recorded asteroid impact in recent history, the Tunguska Impact in Siberia that happened June 30, 1908. The event resulted to the flattening of a 770 square miles of forest. However, no asteroids are currently in the Earth's path according to experts.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone