ASTEROID Day 2024

Asteroid Day is a UN-sanctioned global awareness campaign participated annually on 30 June with a mission to inspire, engage and educate the public about asteroids opportunities and risks.

Asteroid Day was co-founded by astrophysicist and famed musician Dr Brian May of the rock group Queen, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, filmmaker Grig Richters, and B612 Foundation President Danica Remy, to educate the public about the importance of asteroids –their role in the formation of our solar system, their impact in space resources and the importance of defending our planet from future impacts. Asteroid Day is observed annually on 30 June to mark the date of Earth’s largest asteroid impact in recorded history, the Siberia Tunguska event.

In 2016, with the leadership of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), the United Nations declared 30 June as International Asteroid Day to “observe each year at the international level the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over Siberia, Russian Federation, on 30 June 1908, and to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard.”

Asteroid Day events are held around the world largely independently organized by museums, space agencies, universities, clubs and enthusiastic educators around the world for people of all ages and mostly free-of-charge. Events range from lectures and to short story contests to live concerts and broader community events. Learn more about hosting Asteroid Day events.

Facts about Asteroids

Asteroids are clues to the formation of the rocky planets of our solar system. The objects we see today are left over from a time when the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago. There are a LOT of these leftovers out there. Let’s learn some cool facts about them.

• Asteroids aren’t the only things that hit Earth. Each day, more than 100 tons of material from asteroids and comets falls toward Earth. Most of it is destroyed by friction as it passes through our atmosphere. If something DOES hit the ground, it is known as a meteorite.
• While asteroid impacts were more common in the past, they aren’t as frequent today.
• An asteroid impact some 65 million years ago contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs. (It was one of several factors that affected all life on Earth at that time.)
• Earth suffers an impact from an object the size of a football field about once every 2,000 years.
• A car-sized meteoroid (a piece of asteroid) falls into Earth’s atmosphere about once a year. The result is a beautiful fireball, but the meteoroid usually burns up before reaching the ground.
• Asteroids are rich in precious metals and other metals, as well as water.
• Some asteroids are blown-out comets. The ices are gone, and all that’s left is the rocky material.
• Some asteroids have moons of their own!
• Most asteroids orbit the Sun in the Asteroid Belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter.
• Asteroids are also referred to as minor planets or planetoids.