World asteroid day 30, June 2022 : Why do we celebrate asteroid Day?

Asteroid, also called minor planet or planetoid, any of a host of small bodies, about 1,000 km (600 miles) or less in diameter, that orbit the Sun primarily between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in a nearly flat ring called the asteroid belt.

International Asteroid Day aims to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard and to inform the public about the crisis communication actions to be taken at the global level in case of a credible near-Earth object threat.

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 in order 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.”

The holiday is often celebrated with activities like lectures, discussions, and concerts. Hosting your own could be a great benefit to your community.

Asteroids are numbered in order of their discovery and many have been named. For example, the first asteroid discovered is 1 Ceres, the second is 2 Pallas, etc. More than 400,000 asteroids have been discovered in the main asteroid belt.

The 3 broad composition classes of asteroids are C-, S-, and M-types.

1. The C-type (chondrite) asteroids are most common. They probably consist of clay and silicate rocks, and are dark in appearance.

2. The S-types ("stony") are made up of silicate materials and nickel-iron.

3. The M-types are metallic (nickel-iron).