Asteroid Day 2020: Date, history & significance

June 30th is celebrated as International Asteroid Day worldwide. This year will mark the 6th anniversary of World Asteroid day. 

The day is celebrated to spread awareness about the asteroid, its intensity, and how it will impact planet Earth if it crashes it. 

The United Nations General Assembly in December 2016 adopted a resolution A/RES/71/90 and designated 30 June as International Asteroid Day. The date of June 30th was selected as it marks the anniversary of the Tunguska event. 

According to the official press release, Marc Scheper, Head of Space Transportation, Robotic Missions and Exploration said, "Asteroid Day rightly demands that asteroids must be discovered since they pose a risk to our planet from time to time. The combination of NASA’s deflection mission DART and ESA’s mission HERA allows us to find out how asteroid deflection works and, at the same time, learn more about these celestial bodies. I am proud that OHB is the designated industrial prime for the HERA mission".

World Asteroid Day 2020 celebration

This year all the celebration related to World Asteroid Day will be conducted virtually due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

This year, the topic for World Asteroid Day 2020 would include about the rate of discoveries done with regards to asteroids over the years, why there is a need for accelerated discoveries on asteroids, the arrival of samples from asteroid Ryugu and Bennu, preparations for U.S.-Europe mission with regards to asteroid Didymos, and many more.