Asteroid research and planetary defense are of great interest to scientists worldwide, which is why June 30 marks International Asteroid Day.
The Asteroid Foundation is hosting its annual series of asteroid-led panels and discussions on Thursday (June 30) in Luxembourg. This year’s event will be held in person for the first time in two years and broadcast live to viewers worldwide. You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of the Asteroid Foundation, or on YouTube, from 11 am local time (5 am EDT; 0900 GMT).
“Asteroid Day reminds the world of the importance of these celestial bodies. They hold the keys to understanding the solar system’s structure, provide the stones we will use to explore our solar system, and sometimes hit our planet,” Dorin Prunariu. In a statement, Deputy Chair of the Asteroid Foundation and former chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Use of the United Nations (UN COPUOS). “We are in an unusual time of space research and campaigns, and every year, our aerospace experts bring new information and revelations.”
The four-hour base program will include seven-panel discussions on the design of the 4.6 billion solar systems, how to detect and track asteroids, and equipment designed to protect the Earth from these tiny, rocky bodies – such as NASA history. The first spacecraft test, DART, aimed at colliding with an asteroid moon later this year.
Asteroid Day is celebrated annually on June 30, marking the commemoration of the Tunguska meteor shower in Siberia in 1908. The event began in 2015 when it was broadcast live in London and San Francisco. Asteroid Day is designed to educate the public about asteroid science, research, and missions – and this year, there is much to talk about, with more asteroid aircraft flying or programmed than ever before, the Asteroid Foundation said in a press release.
