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Bloomfield Hills, MI – Cranbrook Institute of Science is hosting a series of activities, displays and lectures in observance of Asteroid Day, a global movement established to heighten awareness of the potential threat to humanity posed by asteroid impacts (https://asteroidday.org/). Visitors will have the opportunity to learn how to tell meteorites from meteor-wrongs, build take away asteroid models, see and handle authentic meteorites from around the world, as well as asteroid impact glass (tektites) from SE Asia and Western Egypt, and impact deposits and shatter cones from Western Australia, Marquette Michigan, Morocco and Sudbury Ontario.
Local astronomer Bob Trembly, blogger for the Vatican Observatory Foundation and NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, will give a related 45-minute lecture at Noon concerning the rapid increase in asteroid discovery since the 1990’s, and methods to protect the Earth from asteroid impacts. Bob is also a volunteer ambassador for the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission and he will discuss his recent visit to the OSIRIS-REx headquarters at the University of Arizona.
Cranbrook geologist John Zawiskie will also present a 20-minute talk – at 1:30 PM on the remarkable origin of Libyan Desert Glass from SW Egypt (with specimens) and its historical connections to ancient Egypt and the popular motion picture The English Patient.
