Introduction – International Asteroid Day is also called as World Asteroid Day, which will be celebrated on June 30 every year that aims to raise awareness about asteroids and what steps to take for protecting the Earth and future generations from a disastrous event. It is a worldwide event and is observed on the anniversary of the Siberian Tunguska event, which took place on June 30, 1908. This day is one of the most harmful that is related to asteroid events in recent history on Earth.

The United Nations has declared that International Asteroid Day was observed on June 30 every year all over the world. The main aim of this global day is to raise awareness about the impact and hazard of the asteroid among common individuals worldwide.

History – The United Nations General Assembly accepted a resolution in December 2016 to observe the International Asteroid Day on June 30 every year. This day is celebrated on the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over Siberia on June 30, 1908. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness about the impact or hazard of the asteroid. Tunguska event is one of the most harmful for asteroid related events in recent history on Earth.

International Asteroid Day was co-founded by Grigorij Richters, B612Foudation President Danica Remy, Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweikart, Brian May, guitarist of the rock band Queen, and Stephen Hawking, a filmmaker

Significance – Asteroids are rocky and small objects that orbit the sun and are often described as a minor planet but when the orbiting object is large then it is also called as planetoid. There are more than 1 million asteroids that have the potential to impact Earth. On this day we learned about the impacts of the asteroid and is the way to understand the threat or raise awareness to the general public all over the world.

Tunguska event – It is also called as Tunguska impact and is one of the events with a huge explosion on June 30, 1908, in the morning that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia. This explosion was eventually attributed to the airburst of a stony meteoroid with a size of around 330 feet.