__NOTOC__ Asteroid Day (also known as International Asteroid Day) is an annual global event which is held on June 30, the anniversary of the

Tunguska event The Tunguska event was a large explosion of between 3 and 50 TNT equivalent, megatons that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia, on the morning of 30 June 1908. The explosion over ...

in 1908 when a meteor air burst levelled about of forest in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Asteroid Day was cofounded in 2014 (the year after the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor air burst) by physicist

Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking (8January 194214March 2018) was an English theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between ...

, B612 Foundation president Danica Remy,

Apollo 9 Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apollo program, which successfully tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. The three-man crew consisted of Commander James McDivitt, Command Modul ...

astronaut

Rusty Schweickart Russell Louis "Rusty" Schweickart (also Schweikart; born October 25, 1935) is an American aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut, research scientist, United States Air Force, U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft, fighter pilot, as well as ...

, filmmaker Grigorij Richters, and

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

(

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

guitarist and astrophysicist). Remy, Schweickart, Richters, and May initiated Asteroid Day in October 2014, which they announced during a press conference. It was launched on December 3, 2014. In 2016, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

proclaimed Asteroid Day be observed globally on June 30 every year in its resolution. The event aims to raise awareness about

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

s and what can be done to protect the Earth, its families, communities, and future generations from a catastrophic event.

Legacy

On Asteroid Day 2017, minor planet 248750 (discoverer M. Dawson) was officially named Asteroidday by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

Asteroid Day declaration

In 2014, the workgroup of Asteroid Day created a declaration known as the "100X Declaration", which appeals to all

scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...

s and technologists who support the idea of saving the Earth from asteroids. The 100X Declaration was signed by more than 22,000 private citizens, including those who are not specialists.Asteroid Da
List of Signatories
"Our story" AsteroidDay.org http://www.asteroidday.org/our-story Although more than 1,000,000 asteroids have the potential to strike the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, only about one percent have been discovered. The 100X Declaration calls for increasing the asteroid discovery rate to 100,000 (or 100x) per year within the next 10 years. It is hoped that this will bolster efforts for addressing potential strikes. The main three goals are: # Employ available technology to detect and track near-earth asteroids that threaten human populations via governments and private and philanthropic organizations. # A rapid hundred-fold acceleration of the discovery and tracking of near-earth asteroids to 100,000 per year within the next ten years. # Global adoption of Asteroid Day, heightening awareness of the asteroid hazard and our efforts to prevent impacts, on June 30 – With the

recognition, this action item has been achieved.

Asteroid Day 2015–2019

According to information on asteroiday.org, there were over 2,000 events in its first five years of the day being announced, across 78 countries. 41 astronauts and cosmonauts participated in activities on the day. The general goal was to raise awareness about the threat posed by asteroid impacts. Institutions such as Institut de Ciències de l'Espai, the Natural History Museum in Vienna, the American Natural History Museum, the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

, the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, Industry (manufacturing), industry and Outline of industrial ...

in London, the

SETI Institute The SETI Institute is a not-for-profit research organization incorporated in 1984 whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe, and to use this knowledge to inspire and guide present and futu ...

, the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

, the

UK Space Agency The United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) is an executive agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the United Kingdom's British space programme, civil space programme. It was established on 1 April 2010 to replace the Britis ...

, among others participated in educational activities.

United Nations

In February 2016, Romanian astronaut

Dumitru Prunariu Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu (; born 27 September 1952) is a Romanian cosmonaut. He flew in space aboard Soyuz 40 spacecraft and Salyut 6 space laboratory. He teamed with the Soviet cosmonaut Leonid Popov. The backup crew was made of Romanian candidat ...

and the

Association of Space Explorers Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

submitted a proposal to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the

that 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 was presented for approval to the United Nations General Assembly's 71st session, which it approved on December 6, 2016. In its resolution, the

declares "30 June International Asteroid Day to observe each year at the international level the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

on 30 June 1908 and to raise

public awareness In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichke ...

about the asteroid impact hazard."

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System Annual events in the United Kingdom Annual events in the United States Recurring events established in 2014 Asteroids June observances International observances Tunguska event Stephen Hawking