Latest news with #WorldAsteroidDay
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
World Asteroid Day 2025: Watch live views of near-Earth asteroids for free online on June 30
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. World Asteroid Day 2025 is upon us! Here's how you can celebrate the event by livestreaming real-time views of near-Earth asteroids from the comfort of your home. June 30 is the 10th anniversary of World Asteroid Day, an annual United Nations-backed event wherein partners raise awareness of asteroids, their scientific value and how humanity is working to mitigate the risks posed by these wandering solar system bodies. The date coincides with the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska event, which saw a large meteor detonate over Siberia, flattening millions of trees and triggering widespread forest fires. The Virtual Telescope Program has announced a livestream to mark World Asteroid Day on June 30, which will feature real-time views of near-Earth asteroids while discussing the characteristics and impact risks posed by the enigmatic chunks of ancient debris. The stream will be hosted on the Virtual Telescope Project's YouTube channel starting at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on June 30 and will be free to watch. Our planet bears the scars of countless ancient asteroid strikes, the largest of which — such as the Chicxulub impactor — triggered the extinction of countless species, irrevocably altering the evolutionary trajectory of life on Earth. Thankfully, such events are exceedingly rare. Of the well over 30,000 near-Earth objects that have been discovered and tracked to date, no large asteroid capable of causing wide-spread destruction is expected to strike our planet in the next 100 years, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies. Protecting the planet from an impending asteroid strike may once once have been the stuff of Hollywood sci-fi movies, but recent decades have seen the international community take tangible steps towards preparing for a potential asteroid collision. A Planetary Defense Conference is held each year in which NASA, ESA and its partners work to prevent and react to a hypothetical asteroid impact. Each successive exercise has highlighted fresh challenges surrounding response strategies, ranging from the speed at which missions could be designed and launched to how to best gather intelligence and communicate with the general public. Of course preparations have also extended far beyond tabletop simulations. September 2022 saw NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) made history when it slammed into the surface of the 160-meter-wide (252 feet) moonlet Dimorphos, which forms a binary pair with the larger asteroid Didymos. The mission proved that a kinetic impact could significantly deflect the trajectory of a small solar system body and so may be a viable strategy for defending Earth. The Didymos system is set to be visited by the European Space Agency's Hera mission in December 2026, which will observe the aftermath of the impact. On top of that, telescopic eyes are constantly scanning the night sky for evidence of potentially hazardous near Earth objects moving against the starfield beyond. The coming years will see these efforts significantly bolstered by the powerful telescopic eye of the Vera Rubin observatory. The Rubin Observatory's primary mission is to scan the entirety of the southern hemisphere night sky from its vantage point atop mount Cerro Pachon in Chile in a bid to shed light on the mysterious force known as 'dark energy' and an invisible component of the universe called 'dark matter'. However, its initial observations have also highlighted its credentials as an asteroid hunter. TOP TELESCOPE PICK Want to see asteroids in the night sky? The Celestron NexStar 4SE is ideal for beginners wanting quality, reliable and quick views of celestial objects. For a more in-depth look at our Celestron NexStar 4SE review. Over the course of just a few nights, astronomers were able to identify 2,104 new near-Earth objects as they passed over the Rubin observatory's field of view, with some astronomers estimating that the observatory could find up to five million more over the coming years. "This is five times more than all the astronomers in the world discovered during the last 200 years since the discovery of the first asteroid," Željko Ivezić, Deputy Director of Rubin's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, said during a press conference unveiling the observatory's first images on June 23. "We can outdo two centuries of effort in just a couple of years."


Forbes
30-06-2025
- Science
- Forbes
In Honor Of World Asteroid Day, A Short History Of Planetary Defense
World Asteroid Day started with a real bang. An artist's illustration of asteroid Bennu On June 30, 1908, an asteroid about 65 meters wide collided with Earth's atmosphere and exploded several miles above Siberia; the force of the blast flattened and burned millions of trees over an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers. Today, the anniversary of the Tunguska blast has become World Asteroid Day: a science holiday co-founded by a rock music legend and an Apollo astronaut. In 2015, Apollo 9 lunar module pilot Rusty Schweickart helped launch World Asteroid Day with astrophysicist and Queen guitarist Brian May. The United Nations officially recognized the event a year later in 2016. Earlier this month, Arizona senator Mark Kelly – also a former astronaut – introduced a Senate resolution that, if passed, would officially recognize June 30 as World Asteroid Day in the U.S. I spoke with Kevin Schindler, resident historian at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, about the origins of World Asteroid Day, the history of planetary defense, and what asteroids can reveal about the history of our Solar System. Discovering the Danger from Outer Space Around 200 years ago, in the 1830s, geologists began to study fossils and figure out that several mass extinctions had wiped out whole ecosystems of species on Earth in the distant past. 'In recent decades, they realized that those weren't necessarily caused by something on Earth, but by something impacting from space – like the Cretaceous Tertiary boundary,' says Schindler. An artist's impression of a giant meteor impact. In the 1960s, geologist Walter Alvarez discovered a thin layer of black clay in rocks around the world. Below the black line, the rocks were rich in fossils; above it, they were nearly barren. The same layer of black clay showed up all around in the world: in rock outcroppings in Italy and New Zealand, and in samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. And it clearly marked a deadly before-and-after moment in Earth's history – one that happened around 66 million years ago. Alvarez suspected that the black clay was something alien; it contained bizarrely large amounts of an element called iridium, which is vanishingly rare here on Earth but more common in asteroids. He began to realize that an asteroid or comet may have slammed into our planet 66 million years ago, kicking off a mass extinction and scattering iridium-rich black dust over the planet like a burial shroud. The pieces came together in 1978 when geophysicists Glen Penfield and Antonio Camargo discovered the outline of a crater hundreds of kilometers wide at the edge of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Its center lies at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Penfield and Camargo named the crater for one of the communities that now lies within its boundaries: Chicxulub Pueblo. Other craters – smaller but still impressive – also make it obvious that our planet has had more than a few run-ins with meteors during its long history. 'And while there's not as much debris floating around in our Solar System as when it was newly-formed, there's still stuff out there,' says Schindler. 'And it's inevitable that at some point that stuff will come back and get us again.' NASA's Asteroid Watch tracks known asteroids and comets in the Solar System, while observatories ... More like Lowell scan the skies for more. From Deep Impact to DART So we've known almost 60 years that asteroids and comets could threaten life on Earth. 'In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a search to look for bodies that specifically could impact Earth,' says Schindler. 'Phase one of all this started with, 'okay, let's look for these bodies that could hit us,' and then a couple decades later is when we got to phase two, 'what can we do about it if we do find these things?'' Strangely enough, it was a pair of high-budget, low-scientific-accuracy Hollywood blockbusters that really brought planetary defense to public attention, according to Schindler. The summer of 1998 featured not just one but two movies about humanity trying to save itself from extinction by blowing up an incoming chunk of space rock. In Armageddon, a wildly-improbable effort by a team of offshore drillers saves Earth from an asteroid impact; in Deep Impact, a similarly-improbable effort fails to save Earth from a comet (so the summer ends in a cinematic tie). Two men in a space suit using a piece of machinery in a scene from the film 'Deep Impact', 1998. ... More (Photo by) 'The good thing about those movies is that, even though they're not scientifically accurate in every way, they certainly built awareness enough to where lawmakers said, you know, we should put some money aside to study this stuff more,' says Schindler. 'Hollywood, in some ways, has helped the cause to learn more.' And, as science fiction often does, Deep Impact and Armageddon provided thought experiments (albeit not super-accurate ones, to put it mildly) for the ideas that would eventually become actual efforts at planetary defense. According to Schindler, theoretical ideas about whether we could destroy an incoming meteor eventually shifted to ideas about just nudging the deadly object off-course. 'This is just something that's really been developed in the last decade or so and – I wouldn't say culminated, but really became well-known with the mission that went up to deflect the moon of an asteroid to see if it was possible,' says Schindler. Artist rendering of the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) space probe approaching the ... More asteroid Didymos and its minor-planet-moon Dimorphos. The DART spacecraft aims to collide with Dimorphos in autumn 2022 in order to study the effect of an impact with near-Earth objects. Created on September 13, 2021. (Illustration by Nicholas Forder/Future Publishing via Getty Images) That mission was NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, in which an intrepid little spacecraft flew 7 million miles to crash into the asteroid Dimorphos and knock it off-course. Dimorphos is actually a mini-moon that orbits another, larger asteroid called Didymos. Astronomers at Lowell carefully measured Dimorphos's orbital path around its parent asteroid before and after the impact – and they saw evidence that DART had succeeded in knocking Dimorphos into a different orbit. It's a long, long way from deflecting one tiny asteroid moonlet onto a different path around its parent asteroid to deflecting something the size of the Chicxulub impactor – or even Tunguska – as it's barreling toward Earth. But the consensus seems to be that DART was a good start. 'The biggest thing, I think, was that it is possible. This was a very controlled initial step,' says Schindler. 'This was certainly promising enough that we should keep doing these tests in different sizes of body and different compositions, because depending on what it's made of, a body might react differently to something impacting it.' Fossils of the Early Solar System This illustration depicts the 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer-wide) asteroid Psyche, which lies in the ... More main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Meanwhile, Schindler and World Asteroid Day also want the public to know that asteroids are more than potential threats: they're an orbiting treasure trove of information about the history of our Solar System and even the origins of life. Most asteroids are chunks of rock that coalesced early in our Solar System's history but never grew massive enough to become planets; they're like the seeds of planets that might have been. Others are the debris left behind by collisions between objects in those chaotic early days of the Solar System, when planets were forming and gas giants migrated, scattering lesser objects in their wake. 'They tell us what the early composition was and what a chaotic time it was in the early part of our Solar System,' says Schindler. Those clues are written not just in the chemical and physical makeup of asteroids, but in their orbital paths around the Sun. By studying and modelling how those paths have changed over the years, scientists can reconstruct how asteroids and planets may have interacted. The orbits of modern asteroids are like the 'footprints' of planet formation, migrating gas giants, and long-ago collisions. Today, NASA's Lucy mission is exploring the asteroid belt, getting up close and personal with several of these objects. Meanwhile, NASA's OSIRIS-APEX mission is on its way to study the asteroid Apophis, which will pass close (but not too close!) to Earth in 2029. The surface of asteroid Bennu, as seen by OSIRIS-REX in late 2020, is strewn with boulders. 'And now we are studying planetary systems around other stars. Better understanding our Solar System, we can now look at others and see how typical we are,' says Schindler. 'You don't know that without knowing your own Solar System pretty well, so it really has helped us to learn about, sort of, our heritage, I guess.' World Asteroid Day World Asteroid Day aims to tie all of those things together, promoting awareness of planetary defense but also of the immense scientific value – and maybe monetary value, eventually – of asteroids. At Lowell Observatory, that awareness is hard to escape; the observatory stands just an hour's drive from Meteor Crater – which is exactly what the name suggests, a 213-meter-deep, 1200-meter-wide crater where an object about the size of a Boeing 747 slammed into the desert floor around 50,000 years ago. 'The proximity of Lowell Observatory, where we're studying bodies in space, and Meteor crater, where we've seen the result of one of those bodies hitting Earth – how convenient is that? We're looking at both ends of it, from when it's still up in space to the final product if something like this hits.'


Hindustan Times
30-06-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
World Asteroid Day 2025: How to watch near-Earth asteroids live on June 30
On World Asteroid Day 2025, June 30, space enthusiasts and science lovers around the world can look forward to a special treat. On the 10th anniversary of the observation, a United Nations event will bring real-time views of near-Earth asteroids into people's homes for free. World Asteroid Day 2025 is on June 30 The UN began observing World Asteroid Day to raise awareness about the scientific value and potential risks of the asteroids. This event is held on the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska event when a massive meteor explosion over Siberia had flattened over 80 million trees. According to a report, the Virtual Telescope Project will be hosting a free livestream of near-Earth asteroids beginning at 5 pm EDT on June 30 to mark the occasion. Viewers can tune in via their official YouTube channel. Astronomers will also be discussing the characteristics of asteroids and the ongoing efforts to defend Earth from possible future impacts. Why do asteroids matter? Earth has been struck by asteroids multiple times through the years. Some impacts, like the Chicxulub impactor, led to mass extinction events including that of the dinosaurs. The report further cited NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies stating that over 30,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) have been identified. Fortunately, no major asteroid poses a risk of colliding with Earth in the next century. How are NASA and global partners working to prevent asteroid threats? According to the report, every year, global space agencies like NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) participate in the Planetary Defence Conference, where they simulate asteroid impact scenarios and refine response strategies. In 2022, NASA successfully conducted the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) by intentionally crashing a spacecraft into Dimorphos, a moonlet of asteroid Didymos, The NASA intended to test whether a collision could alter its trajectory and the test confirmed kinetic impact was a viable method for planetary defense. ESA's Hera mission will be revisiting the Didymos system in December 2026 to study the aftermath of the DART impact. Meanwhile, efforts to detect potentially hazardous asteroids are ramping up with the introduction of the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile. During initial scans, the observatory detected over 2,100 new near-Earth objects within days. Željko Ivezić, deputy director of Rubin's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, was quoted as saying that two centuries' worth of effort can be outdone in just a couple of years. The observatory is expected to discover up to five million new asteroids in the coming years, revolutionising our ability to monitor space threats. FAQs: 1. What is World Asteroid Day? World Asteroid Day is a UN-backed annual event held on June 30 to raise awareness about asteroids and space safety. 2. How can I watch the asteroid livestream? The Virtual Telescope Project will stream it live on their YouTube channel starting at 5 pm EDT on June 30. 3. Is Earth at risk from asteroids? According to NASA, no large asteroid is projected to hit Earth in the next 100 years. 4. What is the DART mission? NASA's DART mission tested whether crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid could deflect its path. It succeeded in altering Dimorphos's orbit.


News18
30-06-2025
- Science
- News18
Why is June 30 World Asteroid Day? All You Need to Know and 10 Key Facts
Last Updated: International Asteroid Day is observed to help people understand how dangerous it could be if an asteroid ever hit the Earth. World Asteroid Day 2025: Asteroids are strange space rocks that move around the sun. They aren't planets or comets; they are made of metal, rock, or ice. Some are tiny, like rubble, while others are huge, almost the size of small planets. They don't have any atmosphere, but they can still be very dangerous. If one crashes into Earth, it can cause a lot of harm. That's why it's important to know about them. To help people understand the risks, International Asteroid Day is observed every year on June 30. The day is observed to help people understand how dangerous it could be if an asteroid ever hit the Earth. International Asteroid Day is celebrated every year on June 30. This year, it falls on a Monday. Why is June 30 World Asteroid Day? On June 30, 1908, a massive explosion happened in the sky above a remote forest in Siberia, near the Tunguska River. A giant fireball, believed to be about 50 to 100 meters wide, destroyed around 2,000 square kilometers of forest and flattened nearly 80 million trees. The blast was so powerful that people living 60 km away were knocked off their feet. Even today, the exact cause of this explosion is still a mystery. Some scientists think it was caused by a meteor or a comet, while others believe it could have been a result of a powerful cosmic event. Many also think it might have been an asteroid. Whatever the cause, the explosion released energy about 185 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. To raise awareness about such dangers, the United Nations observes June 30 as International Asteroid Day every year. In the past decade, a few asteroids have come very close to Earth, just a few hundred thousand kilometers away. Scientists have also found proof that about 66 million years ago, a huge asteroid hit Earth and wiped out around 75 per cent of all life, including the dinosaurs. International Asteroid Day 2025: All You Need To Know In December 2016, the United Nations officially declared June 30 as International Asteroid Day. This date was chosen to mark the anniversary of the huge asteroid explosion that happened in Siberia on June 30, 1908. The idea for this day came from the Association of Space Explorers and was supported by a UN space committee. The main purpose of International Asteroid Day is to make people aware of how dangerous an asteroid impact can be. Since many people don't know much about asteroids or the risks they bring, the day is used to educate them through events, campaigns, and other activities. International Asteroid Day 2025: 10 Key Facts Asteroids come in many shapes and sizes, and studying them helps scientists learn how the solar system was formed. The first asteroid ever discovered was Ceres, found by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801. About 65 million years ago, an asteroid hit Earth and started a series of events that led to the extinction of dinosaurs. Most asteroids orbit the Sun in a region called the asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter. Some asteroids are the rocky leftovers of comets, after all their ice has melted away. NASA says there are over 1 million asteroids in space. These rocky objects, sometimes called small planets, usually have odd shapes, though a few are almost round. Interestingly, around 150 of them even have their own moons, and some have two! Most asteroids orbit the Sun in a region between Mars and Jupiter, known as the main asteroid belt. The largest one, called Vesta, is about 530 km wide. Asteroid Day is not just about learning what asteroids are—it's also a time to think about how we can protect Earth from a possible asteroid impact in the future. First Published: June 30, 2025, 07:20 IST


Hans India
30-06-2025
- Science
- Hans India
World Asteroid Day: Raising awareness about asteroid
World Asteroid Day is observed every year on June 30 to raise awareness about asteroids and the potential hazards they pose to Earth. The primary goal of World Asteroid Day is to educate the public about asteroids, space science, and the importance of planetary defense. Through public events, documentaries, expert talks, and outreach initiatives, the day seeks to inform people about the role of asteroids in our solar system and how scientists monitor their paths. Asteroids are remnants from the early formation of the solar system. While most orbit safely between Mars and Jupiter, some, known as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), come close to the planet. Even relatively small asteroids can cause significant damage if they impact Earth, making early detection and monitoring crucial. Space agencies like NASA, ESA, and ISRO actively track thousands of these objects and develop strategies to deflect any that may pose a threat. Missions such as NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) demonstrate our growing capability to prevent future collisions. World Asteroid Day also inspires young minds to explore careers in astronomy, space science, and planetary defense. It highlights the importance of international collaboration and continued investment in space research to ensure global safety.