Asteroid Day: Everything you need to know about saving the world from space rocks
June 28, 2015
The world’s first Asteroid Day will be held on 30 June in a bid to raise awareness about future impact events and the threat they pose to the planet.
Asteroid Day was announced in December 2014, when a global coalition of scientists, astronauts, physicists and celebrities launched the 100x Declaration – a call for improved detection of near-Earth asteroids through better technology.
The declaration was signed by famous names including Brian May, Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, Anousheh Ansari, Stewart Brand and 38 astronauts and cosmonauts, among others.
At the time, the Queen guitarist said: “The more we learn about asteroid impacts, the clearer it becomes that the human race has been living on borrowed time. We are currently aware of less than 1% of objects comparable to the one that impacted Tunguska, and nobody knows when the next big one will hit. It takes just one.”
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