NMMNHS News:

Celebrate International Asteroid Day at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (NMMNHS) with hands-on activities, special programming, and visits from New Mexico space scientists 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, June 30.

This international event is held June 30 every year, the anniversary of the largest impact from a space object to happen in human history, the “Tunguska event”.

Asteroid Day will feature hands-on activities and family-friendly demonstrations. Learn how to tell the difference between meteorites and Earth rocks with experts from the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritics. A NASA Solar System Ambassador will have information about comets and asteroids. In the atrium, the museum will host several New Mexico space scientists who have been honored with asteroids named after them, including two who work at the Museum.

Additionally, the museum will be replaying last year’s Asteroid Day Festival in the ViewSpace Theater. At noon, NMMNHS planetary geologist and educator Jayne Aubele will lead a brief guided tour of the permanent museum exhibit that showcases the dramatic asteroid impact believed to have ended the age of dinosaurs. A special screening will begin at 1 p.m. of the planetarium show Incoming!, explores the past, present, and future of the Solar System.

Asteroid Day is an opportunity to consider the role that asteroids have played in shaping our world while learning from the New Mexico researchers who study space science.