International Asteroid Day 2018: Learning the risk of space rocks on Earth
New Delhi : It’s international Asteroid Day, today. Yes, on June 30 researchers from around the world gathered to observe the day and to discuss the threats asteroids pose to the planet Earth.
Institutions across the world are hosting events to raise awareness about asteroids. Internet users can find a dedicated Asteroid Day events page or can watch live discussions and other asteroid-related programming from webcast today. Else, one can tune in to the Asteroid Day broadcast live here on space.com to see live updates.
While we there is no big threat about another huge asteroid like the one that killed the dinosaurs crashing into Earth, asteroids still pose a threat, NASA and other space agencies have said.
A much smaller asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 injured more than 1,200 people, and shock waves damaged buildings up to 58 miles (93 kilometers) away from the explosion. In April, an asteroid twice that size and about as big as the Tunguska asteroid responsible for the worst impact in recorded history made an unusually closeness to the Earth.
NASA believes that there are around 10 million near-Earth objects (NEOs) the size of the space rock that hit Chelyabinsk, but those small NEOs are more difficult to detect before they enter Earth's atmosphere, NASA officials said during a news conference on the White House's "National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan," which was released June 20.
Luckily, NASA also found that more than 95 percent of all asteroids big enough to cause a global catastrophe, and none of them signalled danger till date. However, astronomers believe they have found only one-third of all space rocks in Earth's vicinity that measure at least 460 feet wide, which is big enough to destroy an entire state, NASA officials said.
"Asteroid Day events will address science as well as government and private-sector initiatives to study asteroids, and particularly advanced efforts to develop greater detection, tracking and deflection techniques," Asteroid Day organizers said in a statement.
To inaugurate the annual Asteroid Day activities, British physicist and BBC commentator Brian Cox hosted a preview program on June 29 morning with celebrities like Bill Nye, retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
The European Space Agency (ESA) also attended the conversation Friday with a 90-minute "infotainment" event at the Technical University Darmstadt in Germany.
ESA flight dynamics engineer Rainer Kresken highlighted several other issues during the event in Germany. For example, in real life, the daring oil drillers wouldn't be able to get anywhere close to that giant asteroid, which would be accelerated to incredible speeds by our planet's gravity.
"If such an object, whatever kind it is, approaches Earth closer [than] the moon, it's way faster than you can approach it with a space shuttle or any existing" vehicle, Kresken said.
