Sensitizing to the risk of space rocks

Good International Asteroid Day! On Saturday, June 30, researchers from around the world will come together to discuss the dangers of asteroids for planet Earth and what we can do to mitigate this threat.

Institutions around the world hold asteroid awareness events. You can find events near you on the Asteroid Day events page or watch live discussions and other asteroid-related programs from the comfort of your home during a 48-hour webcast. Plug in on the day of the asteroid broadcast live here on Space.com or on the Asteroid Day home page.

Although we probably do not have to worry about another huge asteroid like the one that killed the dinosaurs crashing on Earth in the foreseeable future, asteroids still pose a threat, said NASA and other space agencies. [Gallery: Potentially Dangerous Asteroids]

A much smaller asteroid that exploded on Chelyabinsk, Russia, injured more than 1,200 people in 2013 and shockwaves damaged buildings up to 93 km from the coast. explosion. In April, an asteroid twice as big – and about as big as the Tunguska asteroid responsible for the worst impact of history – made an unusual overflight of the Earth. NASA estimates that there are about 10 million NEOs the size of the space rock that struck Chelyabinsk, but these are more difficult to detect before entering the "rocket". Earth's atmosphere, said NASA officials. Fortunately, NASA also estimates that it has found more than 95% of all asteroids big enough to cause a global disaster, and none of them pose a threat. However, astronomers believe they found only one-third of all space rocks in the vicinity of the Earth that are at least 460 feet (140 meters) wide, which is large enough to destroy an entire state, officials said. The NASA. "The Asteroid Day events will focus on science as well as on government and private initiatives to study asteroids, and in particular on advanced detection, tracking and deflection techniques," said the organizers of Asteroid Day. To begin the annual activities of Asteroid Day, the British physicist and BBC commentator, Brian Cox, presented a preliminary program on Friday morning (June 29) with celebrities like Bill Nye (the scientist), Chris Hadfield, retired astronaut. astronaut Rusty Schweickart and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

The European Space Agency (ESA) also joined the conversation Friday with a 90-minute infotainment event at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.

Part of the event was a discussion of the flaws of the 1998 film "Armageddon", in which a team of oil drillers wander to a Texas-sized asteroid screaming toward Earth. They pierced a deep hole in the space rock and then placed a nuclear bomb there, breaking the asteroid and saving civilization.

As you can probably see from this brief description, there are many flaws in "Armageddon". For starters, there is the nonsense of sending people to do this dangerous work in deep space. And as many people have noted, no missile ever invented is powerful enough to destroy a space the size of Texas.

The flight dynamics engineer from ESA Rainer Kresken raised several other issues during the Friday event in Germany. For example, in real life, heroic oil drillers could not get close to this giant asteroid, which would be accelerated at tremendous speeds by the gravity of our planet.

"If such an object, no matter what it is, approaching the Earth closer to the moon, it is much faster than it can be. approaching with a space shuttle or any other existing vehicle, says Kresken

51º North Trailer Version 2 United on Vimeo

If you stay too late (or wake up early, depending on where you are), you can attend a special screening of the sci-fi movie "51 Degrees North" on the Asteroid Day stream at 2:10 am EDT (0610 GMT) .In the movie, a group of asteroids is heading straight for Earth, and the world has only three weeks to get ready.

And if the film leaves you anxious at the thought of the impending doom of Earth, The Next Program – A Discovery Channel's 50-minute episode titled "How To Survive An Asteroid Attack" – Can Help You Calm Your Nerves.

The rest of the day's schedule includes live events with scientists from NASA, the European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatory and more. You can find the full broadcast schedule here.

Email Hanneke Weitering at [email protected] or follow @hannekescience . Follow us on @Spacedotcom Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.