World Asteroid Day 2019: Why and when this day is observed globally

New Delhi: Today, the world is observing International Asteroid Day. It is marked in order to raise public awareness about the possible hazardous impacts of asteroids and inform the public about crisis communication actions to be taken at the global level in case of a credible near-Earth object threat.

According to News 18 report, Near-Earth objects (NEOs) comprise asteroids or comets, which pose potentially catastrophic threats to our planet, as they pass close to the Earth's orbit.

So far, over 16,000 near Earth asteroids have been discovered according to NASA’s Centre for NEO Studies.

The Earth's largest asteroid impact in recorded history occurred on June 30, 1908 near river Tunguska in Siberia, Russia and is hence, remembered as the Tunguska event.

Why is World Asteroid Day observed?

The United Nations gave the call to declare the day as International Asteroid Day in December 2016, to "observe each year at the international level the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over Siberia, Russian Federation, on 30 June 1908, and to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard."

The second largest asteroid impact was felt on February 15, 2013, when an extraordinarily large fireball, travelling at a high velocity entered the atmosphere and disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk.

How is asteroid impact hazard a global issue?

The NEO impact hazard has been recognised as a global issue, which demands international response, after years of work by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). A call for cooperative action in the interest of public safety has been given to address such a hazard.