International Asteroid Day takes place on June 30 every year and is a United Nations-recognised campaign to raise awareness of asteroids, their potential threat to our planet and the scientific secrets that can be discovered by studying them. This day is observed to inspire, engage and educate the people about asteroids opportunities and risks.
This year’s International Asteroid Day marks the 113th anniversary of the largest recorded asteroid impact that took place near the Tunguska River in Russia’s Siberia.
In December 2016, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution declaring June 30 as the International Asteroid Day in order to “observe each year at the international level the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over Siberia and to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard.”
What are Asteroids?
According to the NASA, asteroids are “rocky remnants left over from the early formation of our Solar System about 4.6 billion years ago”. There are currently 1,097,106 known asteroids. Asteroids are different from meteors, which are small bodies of matter that appear as a streak of light when entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
What is the Tunguska Event?
The NASA says, “The only entry of a large meteoroid into Earth’s atmosphere in modern history with firsthand accounts was the Tunguska event…This meteor struck a remote part of Siberia but didn’t quite make it to the ground. Instead, it exploded in the air a few miles up. The force of the explosion was powerful enough to knock over trees in a region hundreds of miles wide…Locally, hundreds of reindeer were killed”.
