Asteroid Day - June 30th

[bhamil]

There was an interesting article in the New York Times that I read today while flying home to the Twin Cities. The article is called "Agencies, Hoping to Deflect Comets and Asteroids, Step Up Earth Defense" Long title, but interesting article. Brian May, the astrophysicist who is a founding member and lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, is involved with Astroid Day. Personally, I had never heard of this day. Have any of you? Asteroid Day will be held on June 30th. The purpose of Asteroid Day is to help raise global awareness of doomsday rocks from outer space. June 30th is the anniversary date of the largest impact in recent history. June 30, 1908 a cosmic intruder toppled millions of trees in Siberia with a blast judged a thousand times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that leveled Hiroshima.
The article also describes how NASA and the National Nuclear Security Administration are doing collaboration. They have designed rocket interceptors and run supercomputer simulations to see if a nuclear blast could nudge a large asteroid off course.
I thought my fellow MAS members might want to check out this fascinating article.
FYI,
Brandon