Thursday, June 30, 2016

Asteroid Day PH

On this day in 1908 the Tunguska impact happened. An asteroid (estimated to be 120 feet across, and 220 million pounds) impacted near the Podkamennaya, Tunguska River in Siberia.
Image from Leonid Kulik's expedition of the Tunguska impact site.

In 2015, a global awareness campaign was made where people from around the world came together to learn about asteroids and what we can do to protect Earth. This became known as the Asteroid Day movement. There are over 100 signatories for the Asteroid Day including prominent figures in the international astronomical community, and also the members of GAIA.
As part of our commitment to the Asteroid Day movement, the guild met in 2015 to have a lecture on asteroids. Today, the guild came together for a lunch meeting to discuss potential researches that can be done on the topic of asteroids. GAIA has been the only registered participant within the first two years of celebrating Asteroid Day, and the guild hopes to be able to setup a large public event for 2017.