This celebration is held all over the world, having as one of its most emblematic figures the doctor in Astrophysics and Queen's guitarist, Brian May. In Chile, the activities are coordinated by the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, a scientific center that together with about twenty institutions and national groups organized a big party in the Pueblito de Las Vizcachas. Admission is free of charge.
Workshops, interactive spaces, meteorite exhibition, storytelling, rocketry, contests and live music are just some of the activities that visitors will be able to enjoy the Pueblito de Las Vizcachas Park next Saturday, June 29th On that day, and for the third year in a row, the celebration of the International Asteroid Day in our country will move to this park in the Puente Alto district.
Each year the Asteroid Day is coordinated by the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics MASwho was appointed by the Asteroid Foundation in 2016 to convene different institutions and national groups to carry out activities to bring knowledge about these rocks to the public. This has been the case every late June, including during the two years of pandemic confinement, when two marathons of virtual talks and workshops were held.
For this 2024, the activity will take place from 10 AM to 17 PM, mainly in the area of the Pueblito esplanade. There will be installed the activities prepared by MAS and institutions such as the ALMA Observatory, the Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos UDP, AUI NRAO, la dirección de Ciencias de Cerro Navia, CATA y MIROastronomical groupings such as Alfilmedia 3D, the Club Astroamigos Wintata Wara, Fundación Astromanía and Foundation Pequeñas y Gran Estrellaslive music by the groups Desierto Arte and Carpe Diemas well as the sale of astronomical articles and art by the hand of Wanglen Store, Ciencia Entretenida, Art Beamín and Ciencia en Arte.
This year, the celebration will also have a surprise, as it will be held the inauguración oficial del Scale Solar System MAS has just installed in the park and invites you to tour our home in the universe knowing its true dimensions of distance and size between each planet. Guided tours will be available, with prior registration on the same day.
It is the ninth year that the International Asteroid Day is commemorated worldwide, after in 2015 important figures in science, performing arts, music and popularization joined forces to highlight the relevance of the study and discovery of these objects, in order to protect us against a potential collision in the future. Perhaps one of the best known is Brian May, but among those who have signed the Statement 100X - as the petition originating this celebration is known - and which seeks an increase in the rate of near-Earth asteroid discovery by a factor of 100 - are names such as Peter Gabriel, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Black, Kip Thorne, Brian Cox, more than 125 astronauts and hundreds of other science and technology leaders.
The date, June 30, was made official in 2016 by the UN and comes to commemorate the collision of an asteroid, about 35 meters in diameter, in Russia's Tunguska region wiping out an area of more than 2,000 km2 in 1908.
Free Admission
DateJune 30
Location: Pueblito Las Vizcachas, Puente Alto. (Camino San José de Maipo 05109. Cruce Las Vizcachas, Puente Alto)
Time: From 10:00 to 17:00 hrs.
*The activity will be suspended in case of rain, as the park closes in these circumstances.
Crédito imagen: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
