An asteroid is a large, irregularly shaped object in space that orbits our Sun. If one of these giant rocks ends up on a collision course with Earth, we are in for big trouble.
An asteroid is like a comet. However, while comets are mostly made of ice, asteroids are made up of rock or even metal. This makes them dangerous because they can cause a lot of damage if they collide with a planet. The craters on the Moon were formed by asteroids and some think it was an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. Around a million asteroids are located between Mars and Jupiter in an area called the “asteroid belt.”
Asteroid Day was held on the anniversary of the June 30, 1908 Siberian Tunguska event, the most harmful known asteroid-related event on Earth in recent history. The United Nations has proclaimed that Asteroid Day will be observed globally on June 30 every year in its resolution.
The workgroup of Asteroid Day created a declaration called "100X Declaration", which appeals to all scientists and technologists who are supporting the idea of saving the earth from asteroids, but not only specialists are asked to sign, everyone can sign this declaration.
The main three goals are: First, employ available technology to detect and track Near-Earth Asteroids that threaten human populations via governments and private and philanthropic organisations. Second, a rapid hundred-fold acceleration of the discovery and tracking of Near-Earth Asteroids to 100,000 per year within the next ten years.Third, global adoption of Asteroid Day, heightening awareness of the asteroid hazard and our efforts to prevent impacts, on June 30 - With the United Nations recognition, this action item has been achieved.[15]
Asteroid Day 2015-2016. According to the Asteroid Day.org website, over 600 events participated in global activities on June 30 in its first two years across 78 countries. 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 the Natural History Museum in Vienna, the American Natural History Museum , the California Academy of Sciences, the Science Museum in London, the SETI institute, the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, among others participated in educational activities. The first Asteroid Day was held on June 30, 2015.
In February 2016, Romanian astronaut Dumitru Prunariu and the Association of Space Explorers submitted a proposal to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations which 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.
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