{"id":19204,"date":"2017-06-21T16:42:15","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T11:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astron-soc.in\/outreach\/?page_id=19204"},"modified":"2020-06-30T11:42:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T06:12:10","slug":"asteroid-day","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/astron-soc.in\/outreach\/activities\/asteroid-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Asteroid<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>

International Asteroid Day, spreading awareness about asteroids and protecting us from possible impact<\/h3>\t\t\t
June 30 is observed as the International Asteroid Day to spread awareness of the dangers posed by asteroid impacts on Earth, promote research into identifying and tracking these objects and talk about protecting our planet from them. The United Nations decided on this date, which is the anniversary of the Siberian Tunguska event<\/a> in 1908. This year is the first time that many different events are being planned across India on Asteroid Day and this page attempts to aid this effort by collecting national and international resource material for use by science communicators.\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

What are Asteroids?<\/h3>\t\t\t
Asteroids, or minor planets, are rocky bodies in our Solar System that originated from accretion as well as fragmentation processes from the time of the formation of planets. Most of them orbit the Sun in between Mars and Jupiter, though a number of them, called Near Earth Asteroids, come within the orbit of Mars. The largest of them, Ceres, was discovered in 1801 and is 945 km in diameter is now classified as a dwarf planet (along with Pluto). Asteroids range in size from dwarf planets down to a metre across. Many of these can pass close to a planet and crash into it (eg Shoemaker Levy 9 on Jupiter, the craters on the Moon and Mercury etc), including Earth. The Lonar Crater in Maharashtra, or the one in Arizona were caused by such impacts. Since an impact by a larger asteroid could devastate life of Earth (remember the dinosaurs!), astronomers are now engaged in searching for, tracking and studying every possible Near Earth Asteroid. The Asteroid Day is meant to highlight and promote this effort.<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>
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Animated pictures of Near Earth Asteroid Eros taken by NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft in 2000<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Support the goal to detect 100x more asteroids every year<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

International Asteroid Day Resource Page<\/h3>

The coordination for the International Asteroid Day is being done through this website<\/a>. They will broadcasting a 5-hour live programme<\/a> on June 30 featuring many renowned astronomers from across the globe.<\/p>\n

They also have many ideas<\/a> for you if you want to host your own local event, as well as resource material<\/a> for you to download, like videos<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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India-specific resources<\/h3>\t\t\t
We have put together a collection of India-specific resource below, for your use in your local event. Let us know if you would like to add something to the list. <\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>

Articles & books<\/h3>\t\t\t
In English<\/b>\n

\nA popular book, Falling Stones and the secrets of the Universe<\/a> by Narendra Bhandari of PRL (can be ordered from Gujarat Science Academy)\n

\nRamanujan, Gokumenon and Bhattacharyya<\/a><\/i> - asteroids discovered at the Vainu Bappu Observatory, Tamil Nadu\n

\n\"Asteroids, asteroid discoveries and you\"<\/a>, an article by N. Rathnasree\n

\nAn article<\/a> on the Asteroid Day by Rishabh Shukla in Research Matters<\/i>\n

\nLearn more about the three largest impact craters in India - Lonar<\/a>, Ramgarh<\/a> and Dhala<\/a>\n

\nA presentation, \"Geological Wonder of Lonar Crater\"<\/a>, by Sneha Rode (can be used for talks)\n

\n\"Cosmic Hole at Lonar\"<\/a>, an artcle by N. Bhandari, PRL\n

\nAn article<\/a> on Lonar Crater by Sneha Rode\n

\nA scanned copy of a booklet<\/a> on the Lonar Crater (12 MB)\n

\nA scanned copy of an article<\/a> on Lonar Crater by Ganesh and Vasudha Pangare (8 MB)\n

\nA ppt on Asteroids<\/a> by Arvind Paranjpye\n

\nA popular article on Meteorite research in India<\/a> by S.V.S. Murty of Physical Research Laboratory\n

\nAn article on asteroids and meterorite falls in India<\/a> by Goel, Mahajan and Murty of PRL\n

\nAn article on the Katol meteorite fall<\/a> in 2012 near Nagpur, by R.R. Mahajan and S.V.S. Murty of PRL\n

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\nIn other languages<\/b>\n

\nAn article in Malayalam<\/a> by Siddharthan in Deshabhimani\n

\nAn article in Marathi<\/a> on the Lonar Crater by Sneha Rode \n

\nScanned copies of newspaper articles<\/a> on Lonar Crater in Marathi, thanks to P.K. Ghanekar (37 MB)\n

\nA Malayalam wikipedia<\/a> article on Asteroids\n

\nAn article in Tamil<\/a> by T. V. Venkateswaran in Vikatan\n

\nA booklet in Hindi<\/a> on meteorites by N. Bhandari, PRL\n

\nAn article in Hindi<\/a> on asteroids by Navneet Gupta\n

\nAn article in Bengali<\/a> by Manun Khandaker\n

\nThe wikipedia page in Bengali<\/a> on Asteroids\n

\nA newspaper article in Gujarathi<\/a> on meteorites\n\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>

Other resources<\/h3>\t\t\t

Asteroids and the domain of Jupiter<\/a>, a film in Hindi by Vigyan Prasar (they have limited DVD copies available if requested, also in English)<\/p>\n

The first asteroids discovered from India were by Normal Pogson, from the Madras Observatory<\/a>, viz., Asia<\/a>, Sappho<\/a>, Sylvia<\/a>, Camilla<\/a>, Vera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The next asteroid to be discovered from India was 104 years later, viz., Ramanujan<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you want to see an asteroid yourself? Of course, you would need a small telescope. This website<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

This website<\/a> lets you know the night time asteroids visible from any location, oppositions\/close approaches and even asteroid occultations<\/p>\n

Zooniverse<\/a> hosts a number of citizen science projects, especially in astronomy<\/a>. Apart from these, there is the IASC<\/a>, the International Asteroid Search Campaign, as well as the All India Asteroid Search Campaign<\/a><\/p>\n

All asteroid discoveries, confirmation, orbit tracking and follow-up are coordinated by IAU's Minor Planet Centre<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a>, Pan-STARRS<\/a>, LONEOS<\/a>, NEAT<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And there are so many games<\/a> where you can shoot down asteroids! Or help scientists explore asteroids<\/a><\/p>\n

For news reports in India, see<\/p>\n