Babe Among the Stars: The First Asteroid Day
Created | Updated Jun 18, 2015
Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth - Ptolemy
The First Asteroid Day
I started adding near-Earth asteroids to my diary dates some time ago; these things scare me as currently we can only detect about 1% of them - the superbolide that exploded over Chelyabinsk in February 2013 was not known about in advance. This year astronomers have designated 30 June as the first Asteroid Day, a global movement whose aim is to protect Earth from asteroids. It's being supported by eminent people including Lord Rees (the UK's Astronomer Royal), former president of the Royal Geographical Society Sir Crispin Tickell, theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, astrophysicist Dr Brian May, film director Greg Richters, astronaut Chris Hadfield, Nobel Laureate Sir Harry Kroto, former astronaut Helen Sharman, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, astrophysicist Garik Israelian, astronomer Dr Jill Tarter, Prof Brian Cox, retired astronaut Edward Tsang Lu, singer/songwriter Peter Gabriel, retired cosmonauts Dumitru Prunariu and Alexey Leonov, retired Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell, and 'Science Guy' Bill Nye. There's a dedicated website which you can sign up to for information and updates.
June 2015 Diary Dates
- 01: The Moon passes less than 2° north of Saturn
- 02: Full Moon - the Strawberry or Honey Moon
- 04: The 1km-wide asteroid 2005 XL80 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 06: The 95m-wide asteroid 2015 KA122 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 07: The 115m-wide asteroid 2015 KU121 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 08: The 22m-wide asteroid 2015 LF will pass Earth within the orbit of the Moon (approximately half-way)
- 08: The Moon passes 3° north of Neptune
- 09: The 26m-wide asteroid 2015 LH2 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 10: The Moon is at perigee (closest to Earth)
- 10: The 15m-wide asteroid 2015 LH will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 11: The 2m-wide asteroid 2012 XB112 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 11: The Moon passes within half a degree of Uranus
- 12/3: Venus glides past the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44) in Cancer
- 14: The Moon brushes past Mercury
- 15: The Moon passes 1° north of Aldebaran (alpha Tauri)
- 16: The 1km-wide asteroid 1566 Icarus will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 16: New Moon
- 17: The 39m-wide asteroid 2015 LK will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 17: The 22m-wide asteroid 2015 MA will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 18: The 65m-wide asteroid 2015 LQ21 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 18: The 53m-wide asteroid 2015 LG will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 19: The Moon passes 6° south of Venus
- 20: The Moon passes 5° south of Jupiter
- 20: The 23m-wide asteroid 2015 LR21 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 21: Summer solstice (Northern Hemisphere)/Winter solstice (Southern Hemisphere)
- 23: The Moon is at apogee (furthest from Earth)
- 23: The 14m-wide asteroid 2015 KK57 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 24: Mercury passes 2° north of Aldebaran
- 26/7: June Boötid meteor shower peak
- 28: The Moon passes 2° north of Saturn
- 30: Venus and Jupiter are within a third of a degree of each other
- 30: Asteroid Day
- 30: Anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska event
Chat about your celestial observances at the H2G2 Astronomy Society. Comment on anything in this edition of Babe Among the Stars by starting a new conversation below.
