Meet Asteroid Day Event Organisers Club de Geología Planetaria Kuiper – Bolivia

In January 2019, Bryant González, the Venezuelan regional coordinator for Asteroid Day and founder of the Astronomical Backpackers project, was visiting Bolivia. He met Estefania Victoria Martínez Mayorga and noticed her passion for astronomy. 

For Asteroid Day 2020, virtual participants learnt about Safari Apophis, a proposal for how to analyse samples from the asteroid Apophis.

“He recommended me to the organization of Asteroid Day to be part of the team of regional coordinators for Bolivia and thus be able to contribute with my passion year after year during this celebration,” says Estefania.

And so Club de Geología Planetaria Kuiper was born. It is a non-profit organization made up of people interested in planetary geology and astronomy, and  seeks to motivate young people and children in these sciences by promoting knowledge, skills and scientific research.

“I firmly believe that citizen knowledge about astronomy is essential for the development of a country,” says Estefania.

The club’s inaugural event was Asteriodo Day of Potosí, Bolivia, which took place at the end of June 2019. It was supported by the International Union and the Degree in Geological Engineering from the Tomás Frías Autonomous University, Potosí, and its students. Lasting for two days, the event featured both scientific and artist presentations aimed at students and school children. These were made by lecturers from he university.

This year, the Club organised another two-day conference for Asteroid Day. Again, the event featured a number of prestigious speakers and was a great success. Unlike last year, it was conducted online because of the pandemic.

“I believe that the innate attraction of humanity – from ancient times – towards astronomy is the product of the fascination for the unknown,” says Estefania.

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Thanks to the success of their first two Asteroid Days, the Club intends to continue organising events, and they want them to be bigger in the future. 

“We hope to organize face-to-face events that have a much larger audience than the previous ones, to encourage more people to become interested in science through conferences, asteroid drawing contests, recreational activities for children, nights of observation with telescopes,” says Estefania.

Here at Asteroid Day, we wish them good luck and offer them support in their future event endeavors.

Click here to read about Club de Geología Planetaria Kuiper‘s Asteroid Day event. 

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