The Asteroid Foundation’s annual Asteroid Day LIVE programme returns in person Thursday 30 June 2022 at 11:00 CET. After two years as a digital event, astronauts, experts and science communicators from across the world will again converge on Luxembourg to discuss the importance of asteroid research, missions, and advances in space-based technologies. The four-hour-long programme will vividly bring the solar system’s smallest worlds to life for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. 

Asteroid Day LIVE 2022 will be built around seven panel discussions that will tell the full story of asteroids; from the formation of the Solar System, 4.6 billion years ago, to the scientific work taking place today, and our future prospects as we begin to imagine ways to utilise the resources asteroids contain. 

The panels will explore: the origin of the Solar System, how we discover and track Near-Earth asteroids, how we characterise an asteroid according to its composition, orbit and other physical properties, how we will defend Earth if and when we spot a threatening asteroid, what resources we may find on asteroids and elsewhere in the Solar System, how we can utilise space in a sustainable way, and what future missions and technology we have to look forward to.

To tell these remarkable stories, Asteroid Day LIVE will bring together a "Who’s Who?" of people involved in asteroid research.

The panels this year will be moderated by Gianluca Masi, Virtual Telescope Project; Phil Plait, Astronomer, blogger, and author, and Stuart Clark, Asteroid Day’s Editorial Director, and Patrick Michel, Director of Research at CNRS, Côte d’Azur Observatory. Special pre-recorded interviews will take us into the heart of missions such as NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and DART. 

In addition to the live broadcast, the Foundation will be hosting a number of educational events in Luxembourg throughout the last week of June. Free events open to the public include: 

28 June 18:30 CET - Millions on Asteroids - Why spend money on asteroid research and missions? with speakers Danica Remy, Phil Plait and Patrick Michel at Silversquare Liberté in Luxembourg. Event details.

29 June 18:00 CET - Luxembourg Space Cafe at Arendt House with Astronaut Speakers Ron Garan and Michel Tognini. Event Details.

1 July 17:30 CET - Astronauts Inspiring the Future Leaders of Tomorrow with Astronaut Speakers Ron Garan and Christer Fuglesang at Tramsschapp. Event Details. 

2 July 15:00 CET - Space Travellers at Musee national d’histoire naturelle featuring Astronauts Christer Fuglesang and Dorin Prunariu. Event Details

Invitational Educational Events co-funded by the European Union include:

28 June 14:00 CET - Planetary Scientist Patrick Michel at Lycée Vauban. 

29 June 1:00 CET - Astronaut Ron Garan at Lycée de garçons Luxembourg.

29 June 15:00 CET - Asteroid Day Technical Briefing featuring Patrick Michel, Sabina Raducan and Mario Juric sharing the latest asteroid research, joined by NASA astronauts Ed Lu, Ron Garan, ESA astronaut Michel Tognini and cosmonaut Dorin Prunariu at the modern and elegant Arendt House in Luxembourg. Event details. Open to the public

And at the heart of it all is the original purpose of Asteroid Day: to raise awareness that one day we will need to deflect an asteroid away from our planet. Through hard work and dedication, the global asteroid community is working to make this possible – and that puts the asteroid hazard in a class of its own, because uniquely among the natural disasters, asteroid impacts are preventable.

"Asteroid Day reminds the world of just how important these celestial objects are. They hold the keys to understanding the formation of the Solar System, provide stepping stones we will utilise to explore our solar system, and occasionally they hit our planet. We are in an extraordinary time of asteroid research and missions, and every year, our asteroid experts bring new insights and revelations." says Dr Dorin Prunariu, Vice Chair of the Asteroid Foundation and a former chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS).

Asteroid Day’s Luxembourg-based partners Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) and SES, the leader in global content connectivity solutions, will make Asteroid Day TV available for millions to tune in via SES satellite. For more details on Asteroid Day LIVE, visit https://asteroidday.org/asteroid-day-live

Last week Asteroid Foundation highlighted a collection of independently organised Asteroid Day programs which are being hosted around the world in this press release. Additionally, POST Philately Luxembourg issued the first of a series of Asteroid Day Stamps, which are available for purchase here.

Source : Asteroid Day