The annual World Asteroid Day is celebrated on June 30 in remembrance of the Tunguska incident in 1908, when a meteor air burst ravaged a pine forest covering over 2,000 square kilometres (500,000 acres) in central Siberia, Russia. The Tunguska asteroid event marked the greatest known asteroid impact on Earth.

What is an Asteroid? 

• Small, stony objects known as asteroids revolve around the sun. Even though asteroids are far smaller than planets, they orbit the sun similarly.
• In our solar system, there are many asteroids.
• The main asteroid belt, which is located between Mars’ and Jupiter’s orbits, is where the majority of them reside.
• The creation of our solar system left behind asteroids.
• A large cloud of gas and dust crashed to form our solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.
• Most of the material fell to the cloud’s centre as a result, creating the sun.

History of World Asteroid Day 2023

Renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, astrophysicist Brian May, and some others co-founded The Asteroid Day in 2014 (the year after the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor air burst). On 15 February 2013, an extraordinarily large fireball, travelling at a speed of 18.6 kms per second, entered the atmosphere and disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia. NASA estimated the diameter of the asteroid at 18 meters and its mass at 11,000 tons. The total impact energy of the Chelyabinsk Fireball was 440 kilotons.  In December 2016 the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution declaring 30 June as Word Asteroid Day.

The event aims to raise awareness about asteroids and what can be done to protect the Earth, its families, communities, and future generations from a catastrophic event.

Significance of World Asteroid Day 2023

• This day serves as a reminder of the devastating impact asteroids can have on Earth and highlights the incident of the 1908 Tunguska event and the Chelyabinsk event of 2013 in recorded history.
• The catastrophic impact of an asteroid on earth can understand from the fact that around 65 million years ago a chain reaction started by an asteroid impact led to the extinction of the dinosaurs and affected all life on Earth.
• It is also an ideal day to think of measures to save the planet from the hazardous effects of asteroids.

• Since asteroids formed at the same time as other objects in our solar system, these space rocks can give scientists lots of information about the history of planets and the sun.
• Scientists can learn about asteroids by studying meteorites: tiny bits of asteroids that have flown through our atmosphere and landed on Earth’s surface.

Celebration

People all throughout the world inform themselves and others about asteroids. Numerous people go to conferences, seminars, and other educational activities held by prestigious institutions.
Some researchers make contributions to the asteroids field. On World Asteroid Day, people hold numerous internet campaigns.

Continued research on these cosmic objects and their possible dangers to Earth are crucial as we approach International Asteroid Day in 2023.

Asteroids Facts

• Asteroids have different shapes and sizes, which teaches about the formation of the solar system.
• Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres, the first asteroid, in 1801.
• An asteroid impact around 65 million years ago triggered a chain of events resulting in the extinction of dinosaurs on earth.
• Observers find most asteroids orbiting in the asteroid belt, which is a series of rings located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
• Some orbits are blown-out comets. When the ice was gone, the remaining were rocky materials.

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