Building blocks of life – Asteroid Day 2019 at the Natural History Museum Vienna

For the 5th international Asteroid Day, on June 30th 2019, the Natural History Museum Vienna will present a special afternoon program with dedicated talks on the building blocks of life that were potentially delivered by fragments of asteroids. Asteroids are not only bodies that can cause destruction when impacting the Earth, they may also have played a central role for the origin of life on Earth.
This year, we not only celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first human steps on the Moon, but on Asteroid Day we will highlight the 50th anniversaries of the observed spectacular meteorite falls of Allende and Murchison – two so-called carbonaceous chondrites containing extraterrestrial organic compounds. These meteorites connect to current sample return missions to the asteroids Bennu (OSIRIS-REx) and Ryugu (Hayabusa II). Invited talks by specialists and a drawing contest for children about what we have learned from these meteorites regarding the building blocks of life on Earth are planned. We are looking forward for your visit on Asteroid Day 2019 at the Natural History Museum Vienna!