International Asteroid Day, spreading awareness about asteroids and protecting us from possible impact
What are Asteroids?
International Asteroid Day Resource Page
The coordination for the International Asteroid Day is being done through this website. They will broadcasting a 5-hour live programme on June 30 featuring many renowned astronomers from across the globe.
They also have many ideas for you if you want to host your own local event, as well as resource material for you to download, like videos.
India-specific resources
Articles & books
A popular book, Falling Stones and the secrets of the Universe by Narendra Bhandari of PRL (can be ordered from Gujarat Science Academy)
Ramanujan, Gokumenon and Bhattacharyya - asteroids discovered at the Vainu Bappu Observatory, Tamil Nadu
"Asteroids, asteroid discoveries and you", an article by N. Rathnasree
An article on the Asteroid Day by Rishabh Shukla in Research Matters
Learn more about the three largest impact craters in India - Lonar, Ramgarh and Dhala
A presentation, "Geological Wonder of Lonar Crater", by Sneha Rode (can be used for talks)
"Cosmic Hole at Lonar", an artcle by N. Bhandari, PRL
An article on Lonar Crater by Sneha Rode
A scanned copy of a booklet on the Lonar Crater (12 MB)
A scanned copy of an article on Lonar Crater by Ganesh and Vasudha Pangare (8 MB)
A ppt on Asteroids by Arvind Paranjpye
A popular article on Meteorite research in India by S.V.S. Murty of Physical Research Laboratory
An article on asteroids and meterorite falls in India by Goel, Mahajan and Murty of PRL
An article on the Katol meteorite fall in 2012 near Nagpur, by R.R. Mahajan and S.V.S. Murty of PRL
In other languages
An article in Malayalam by Siddharthan in Deshabhimani
An article in Marathi on the Lonar Crater by Sneha Rode
Scanned copies of newspaper articles on Lonar Crater in Marathi, thanks to P.K. Ghanekar (37 MB)
A Malayalam wikipedia article on Asteroids
An article in Tamil by T. V. Venkateswaran in Vikatan
A booklet in Hindi on meteorites by N. Bhandari, PRL
An article in Hindi on asteroids by Navneet Gupta
An article in Bengali by Manun Khandaker
The wikipedia page in Bengali on Asteroids
A newspaper article in Gujarathi on meteorites
Other resources
Asteroids and the domain of Jupiter, a film in Hindi by Vigyan Prasar (they have limited DVD copies available if requested, also in English)
The first asteroids discovered from India were by Normal Pogson, from the Madras Observatory, viz., Asia, Sappho, Sylvia, Camilla, Vera.
The next asteroid to be discovered from India was 104 years later, viz., Ramanujan
Do you want to see an asteroid yourself? Of course, you would need a small telescope. This website will give you the locations, timings and star maps for the brightest asteroids, as seen from Nagpur. You can set your own location there instead.
This website lets you know the night time asteroids visible from any location, oppositions/close approaches and even asteroid occultations
Zooniverse hosts a number of citizen science projects, especially in astronomy. Apart from these, there is the IASC, the International Asteroid Search Campaign, as well as the All India Asteroid Search Campaign
All asteroid discoveries, confirmation, orbit tracking and follow-up are coordinated by IAU's Minor Planet Centre
There are many dedicated surveys carried out by many observatories to detect asteroids, especially Near Earth ones that could pose a danger to us, for example, LINEAR, Pan-STARRS, LONEOS, NEAT.
And there are so many games where you can shoot down asteroids! Or help scientists explore asteroids
For news reports in India, see
- "धोका लघुग्रहांचा!"
Loksatta, 25 June 2017 (in Marathi) - "International Asteroid Day on Friday Precedes Flyby Visit by One Today"
India International Times, 28 June 2017 - "On Asteroid Day, check out a 65-million-year-old meteorite in Mumbai"
Mid-Day, Mumbai, 29 June 2017 - "Huge asteroid Apophis is coming to Earth – How safe are we?"
Zee News, 29 June 2017 - "International Asteroid Day: Risk of Asteroid hitting Earth very high, could ring end of human civilisation"
India.com, 30 June 2017 - "இன்று உலக விண்கற்கள் தினம்"
The Hindu, Puducherry, 30 June 2017 (in Tamil) - "कल्पनाओं के सहारे खोज का सफर"
Dainik Jagran, New Delhi, 30 June 2017 (in Hindi)
Asteroid Day events in India
(If you are organising an event not listed here, please let us know)
- New Delhi
Nehru Planetarium. Interactive sky theatre session (of the Indian asteroid discoveries), skype talk by experts, panel discussion with student discoverers. Organised by Nehru Planetarium and SPACE. More details here - Mumbai
Nehru Planetarium. Meteorite samples for display and a livestream talk here - Bengaluru
Jawarharlal Nehru Planetarium. Rare exhibition of meteorites, poster exhibition and popular lectures (limited seats for lectures, register early). More details here - Srinagar
Moonland School, Pakherpora, Charari Sharief. Quiz, movie show, model making, presentations. Organised by Ibn Al-Haytham Science Club (alhaythamclub@gmail.com, 01951-253030) - Chennai
D.G. Vaishnav College. Book reading and film screening - Bhubaneswar (29 June)
SOS Bhubaneswar. Quiz programme, film screening, talk. Open to all (call 9861576405 for more details) - Bhubaneswar
Miracle Tutorial, Dumuduma. Quiz programme, film screening, talk. Open to all (call 9861576405 for more details) - Trichy
Syed Mudusha Govt High School. Poster exhibition, organised by Trichy District Science Centre - Vellore
Mount Litera Zee School, Veduganthangal. A day of talks and drawing competitions, organised by Audacious Dreams Science Network - Puducherry
10 different schools, organised by Puducherry Science Forum. For more details see here