Asteroid Day 2022: That’s a Wrap!

The big comeback of our biggest in person event Asteroid Day LIVE finally happened after a long 2 year hiatus! More than 40 experts, astronauts and scientists flew from all over the world to the Broadcasting Centre Europe’s state of the art studio in Luxembourg to bring to you our 4 hour program packed with one sensational topic: asteroids!

On top of that, event organizers from around the world joined in to celebrate asteroids both online and in-person. Read on to find out all about Asteroid Day 2022!

Global Events Worldwide:

Ending the pandemic restrictions in many countries, large face-to-face events have been organized again. School participation increased, with Asteroid Day being included in their schedule through activities for students of various grades.

Online events also continued to be an organizing choice for many organizers, enabling the interaction of experts from different countries and the participation of those who are suffering difficulties imposed by a war. Check out some events around the world:

1. Karazin Asteroid Team | Kharkiv, Ukraine
   Despite the circumstances, the Karazin Asteroid Team carried out a broadcast lasting more than three hours, with several presentations about asteroids. Their two-part presentations can be accessed here and here.
2. Arecibo Observatory | Arecibo, Porto Rico
   The observatory provided its audience with meteorite exhibits, lectures and sky observation sessions, putting the Caribbean on the Asteroid Day event map. Check out some moments from the event.
3. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | Los Angeles, USA
   A hybrid event on asteroid exploration and planetary defense with expert participation was held alongside a live-streamed visit to the UCLA Meteorite Collection Gallery.
4. Instituto Milenio de Astrofisica | Pueblito de las Vizcachas, Chile
   Observatories, planetariums, universities, organizations and science outreach projects gathered to celebrate Asteroid Day in a beautiful park located near the capital. The public was able to participate in workshops, sky observations, planetarium sessions, games and various cultural activities in the same place. Watch some moments here.
5. Nigerian Moon Mission Project | Ikeja, Nigeria
   In their first participation in Asteroid Day, the project members spent the day at the Ambiance Cafe presenting some talks about asteroids for children. Some moments can be watched here.
6. Muzej Krapinskih Neandertalaca | Krapina, Croatia
   Together with the ProGEO-Croatia Association, the museum presented lectures, a meteorite exhibition and a giant 3D model of the asteroid Itokawa.
7. Bahrain Stargazers Astronomy Club | Jannusan, Bahrain
   The team located in the Middle East hosted a trivia, talks and an asteroid sketch contest at The Raven’s Nest Cafe. A short video about this activity can be accessed here.

Asteroid Day LIVE

Asteroid Day LIVE is back from BCE studio in Luxembourg with hosts Stuart Clark, Sabinije von Gaffake, astronaut Ron Garan, Maria MacNamara, Lisa Burke and Charles-Louis Machuron.

This year, the theme of Asteroid Day was ‘small and beautiful’ where we looked into the smaller asteroids, technologies and samples which help answer some big questions. We also looked to the future with panel discussions centred around the topics of space resources and how we should use them, and the methods for utilizing and exploring space in a sustainable way.

Speakers and special guests include:

Abigail Calzada Diaz | Abbie Hutty | Alan Fitzsimmons | Bob Lamboray | Christer Fuglesang | Christian Koeberl | Dorin Prunariu | Ed Lu | Emile Espen | Frederic Fievez | Hannah Goldberg | Heli Greus | Hoai Thu Nguyen Doan | Ian Carnelli | Ines Wagner | Jean-François Clervoy | Joshua Rands | Marco Micheli | Mario Juric | Martin Cerff | Michel Tognini | Naomi Murdoch | Patrick Michel | Pete Worden | Reza Kianpour | Ron Garan | Sabina Raducan | Sara Russell | Cathy Olkin | Dante Lauretta | Elena Adams | Lindy Elkins-Tanton | Les Johnson | Mark Boslough | Marcelo Zurita | Rona Oran | Seiji Sugita | Victor Bar

Press/Media Reach

People are talking about asteroids more than ever this year! In 2022, our global press reach was over 6.4 billion as measured by Meltwater. Here is a sample of the most interesting articles we found: BBC (Thai), Forbes (English), Yahoo! News (English), 3B Meteo (Italian), Space.com (English), Sayidaty (Arabic) and cienciaplus (Spanish), clubic (French), Tencent.com (Chinese).

Over the past six years Asteroid Day LIVE has been watched by millions of people all over the world streamed via Twitch, Youtube and viewers connected to SES satellites. You can rewatch previous Asteroid Day LIVE broadcasts at any time again and again via Asteroid Day’s YouTube channel.

Asteroid Day Technical Briefing

On June 29th scientists Patrick Michel, Sabina Raducan and Mario Juric shared the latest asteroid research at the annual Asteroid Day Technical Briefing at the beautiful Arendt House building in Luxembourg. Joined by NASA astronauts Ed Lu, Ron Garan, ESA astronaut Michel Tognini and cosmonaut Dorin Prunariu. Rewatch this event on our Youtube channel to learn insights into asteroids including space missions, computational tools to find, track and deflect asteroids, the state of the world with respect to United Nations asteroid initiatives and much more. This event was co-funded by the European Union.

New Asteroid Day Stamps!

POST Philately is issuing a series of three special stamps over three years in celebration of Asteroid Day; the first motif this year depicts “Defense”.

In 2023, a motif on the theme of “Discovery” will be issued, while for 2024 the subject of the stamp will be “Space Resources” (mining and utilisation of natural resources in space).

Our partners

Thank you to our sponsors and partners who made this year possible: