The Origin of June 30 is Commemorated Asteroid Day

Suara.com – Today, June 30th, is celebrated as Asteroid Day. How is history Asteroid Day, the biggest meteorite fall to ever hit Earth?

Head of the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (EIGHT) Thomas Djamaluddin told the story that one of the biggest impacts of an asteroid falling to Earth was an event Tunguska which occurred on June 30, 1908.

The asteroid that hit the territory of Russia was able to flatten 80 million trees in a forest covering an area of ​​2,150 sq km or three times the area of ​​Jakarta.

The incident began at 7:17 a.m. local time, where the sky showed a fast-moving fireball larger than the Sun as seen from Earth.

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After the fireball disappeared, the meteorite made a loud explosion and shook the Earth.

An eye witness located 80 km from the center of the explosion felt a gust of hot wind and was thrown from his chair.

Meanwhile, another witness stated that people were afraid to gather in the streets because they did not understand what was happening.

Thomas said the sound of the explosion was heard from a distance of 800 km or the equivalent of a straight line from Serang to Surabaya.

Luckily the center of the explosion occurred in an unpopulated area.

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“This event is then commemorated as Asteroid Day which falls on June 30. This warning is also intended to build public awareness regarding the potential threat of asteroids,” he explained.

The falling asteroid is known to measure 100 meters after penetrating the ozone layer, weighs about 1 million tons, and has a speed of up to 108,000 km per hour.

The resulting shock waves reach heights of up to 10 km.

In Indonesia, the biggest asteroid crash occurred on October 8, 2009 in South Sulawesi, dubbed the asteroid Bone.

The shock wave rattled the windows of the residents’ houses. This asteroid has a size of 10 meters after penetrating ozone.

To date, Thomas said a total of 25,000 asteroids are now circling Earth.

Of the total number, there are hundreds of the largest asteroids with a diameter of 1 km.

Then the large asteroids with a diameter of more than 140 meters numbered around 10,000.

“If this large asteroid falls to earth, especially in the sea, it can cause a tsunami. Meanwhile, if it falls to the ground, it can form a crater,” said Thomas in the Asteroid Day webinar on June 30, virtually, Wednesday (30/6/2021). ).

Along with the times and technology, Thomas said, the possibility of an asteroid falling to Earth with a large impact like Tunguska would be rare.

Because, some countries, such as the United States and China, already have equipment that can change the asteroid’s orbit and change the location of its fall to uninhabited land.

“The possibility of an asteroid falling into urban areas is very small. There are thousands of tons of asteroids that enter the earth every day. But it’s difficult to penetrate the ozone layer, burning there first,” said Thomas.

Even if one is detected, he added, a missile would be aimed at the asteroid and change its location to fall into uninhabited territory.

“In the interplanetary space, there are a lot of asteroids. Those that enter Earth are thousands of tons every day, and they will be exhausted first in the atmosphere. The older the solar system, the fewer meteors that fall to Earth,” he explained.

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