ITERA NEWS. Asteroid Day or Asteroid Day is celebrated every year on June 30. The date was approved by the United Nations as a day of public awareness about the risks of asteroid impacts. The mission of Asteroid Day is to educate the public about the risks and opportunities for using asteroids throughout the year by organizing events, providing educational resources, and regular communications to a global audience across multiple platforms. Since 2019, OAIL has participated in commemorating activities Asteroid Day This.
As a celebration Asteroid Day This year, OAIL is holding an Asteroid Day Seminar with the theme “Facing Asteroid Threats to Earth”, in early July 2023, with Dr. Endang Soegiartini from ITB Astronomy as a guest speaker. This activity was held in the Hall of the General Lecture Building 1, and was attended by around 60 participants consisting of university students, teachers, and junior and senior high school students.
In his presentation, Dr. Endang Soegiartini explained that asteroids are debris left over from the process of forming the inner Solar System, and represent pieces left over from the process of forming the inner planets, including Earth. Most of the asteroids are scattered around and orbit the Sun between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter, but there are also those that share or cross the orbits of the planets in the Solar System.
“Asteroids can collide with Earth, thereby changing Earth’s biosphere. The asteroid with the greatest potential to hit Earth is Near Earth Asteroid (NEA), which is also known as a near-Earth Asteroid,” explained Dr. Endang.
Asteroids can collide with Earth, thereby changing Earth’s biosphere. The asteroid with the greatest potential to hit Earth is Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) which is also known as a near-Earth Asteroid
On the other hand, this asteroid also has benefits as a research source. Asteroids that enter Earth will make it easier for scientists to study the early history of the Solar System by examining the asteroid “fossils” because asteroids are classified as cosmic fossils (material that has remained relatively unchanged since the Solar System was very young). Even so, asteroids have the potential to harm the Earth. On July 5, 2023, 2,347 asteroids were recorded with the potential to hit Earth.
Currently, no one knows for sure when an asteroid will hit Earth. One of the efforts made to mitigate the risk of this asteroid collision is the DART Mission test. This mission is carried out by changing the direction of the asteroid’s orbit by crashing the DART into the intended asteroid. The DART mission has been tested on an asteroid called Dimorphos, the impact with DART has succeeded in changing the period of the Asteroid’s orbit. It is hoped that the success of the DART mission can be applied in the future to protect Earth from collisions with asteroids that point towards Earth. Although in fact the possibility of a collision between the Earth and the asteroid is very small, if it occurs it will have a very large impact. Earth is not currently in danger of an asteroid impact, but scientists are continuing to look for ways to prevent such an impact.
In addition to seminar activities, participants were also invited to carry out the activity of making a simple Asteroid crater model to understand how an Asteroid impact impacts on the surface of a rocky planet. The committee provides a box filled with cement mixture for each participant, then the participants will throw stones onto the cement surface. Thus the participants can imagine the impact of an asteroid collision when it hits the Earth’s surface. After this activity, it is hoped that the public will understand and be more aware of the impacts and potential dangers of asteroids. (Release/PR)
2023-07-21 03:08:21
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