UN Holidays - International Asteroid Day

The UN Assembly in 2016 decided to raise people's awareness and draw their attention to the danger of a collision between the Earth and cosmic bodies The date of this event was June 30, which falls annually on International Asteroid Day An initiative group of astrophysicists, technologists, artists, musicians and other cultural figures compiled a special document - the “100X Declaration” It sets out ideas for saving the planet from collisions with meteorites, comets and other celestial bodies The declaration was signed by tens of thousands of citizens from different countries of the world Do you know that? The largest cluster of asteroids is located between Jupiter and Mars Large meteorites have satellites, just like the planets of the solar system Chariklo, an asteroid of Saturn, has its own rings There is no atmosphere, regardless of the size, on any meteorite On June 30, 1908, an extraordinary event occurred in Siberia - the fall of the Tunguska meteorite The power of the explosion produced by it is estimated at 50 megatons, which is equal to the energy released by a hydrogen bomb After the fall of the asteroid, a fire started in the area between the Tunguska and Lena rivers, killing many people and animals The collision of a celestial body with the surface of the planet caused a glow that could be observed even by residents of the Atlantic coast of Europe On the day of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, the events of International Asteroid Day are held Do you know that? Scientists believe that dinosaurs became extinct due to a large meteorite hitting the Earth Asteroids with a diameter of 10 km or more pose the greatest danger to our planet In addition to the Tunguska meteorite, other celestial bodies also fell to Earth In 1920, an asteroid that collided with the planet about 80,000 years ago was discovered in Namibia In 1984, a Martian meteorite was found in Antarctica, about 45 billion years old It is believed that it fell to Earth 13,000 years ago Of the events of recent decades, the Chelyabinsk meteorite, which exploded over the city in February 2013, deserves special attention Do you know that? In 2001, for the first time in history, a spacecraft landed on an asteroid named Eros It was the American drone "Shoemaker" The device, which spent almost a year in orbit of Eros, took dozens of unique photographs of its surface and collected information about the composition and structure of the celestial body • achieve by 2027 the maximum number of meteorites discovered by scientists - 100 thousand pieces; • find, with the help of charitable public and private organizations, means for continuous monitoring of bodies flying in low-Earth orbit; • make International Asteroid Day a solemn date to raise people's awareness of the danger of a collision between the planet and celestial bodies and the possibilities of preventing it Did you know that? The trajectories of about 7,000 meteorites lie in relative proximity to the earth's orbit Currently, scientists are developing programs for the extraction of minerals (nickel, iron, etc) on asteroids However, peaceful coexistence of earthlings with celestial bodies is still far away International Asteroid Day, which is celebrated annually on June 30 in all countries of the world, is intended to draw attention to the danger of a collision and the importance of monitoring their movement