>>> Събитието ще се проведе на английски. The event will be held in English <<<
Living in a Solar System filled with ancient and fast-moving space rocks comes with a plethora of possibilities for something to go wrong🌠
Asteroids have influenced Earth’s development, as seen by the millions of impact craters scarring our world. They are also a promising source of future resources and – last but not least – they pose a proven threat to Earth and human civilization. Just ask a dinosaur, if you can still find one.🦖
The Chicxulub asteroid in fact is probably the most famous space rock in the world. Although you may not know its name, its impact 66 million years ago is legendary. Impacts from such large asteroids are immensely rare, but small- and medium-sized rocks are far more common in the Solar System and can still do serious damage. These asteroids sometimes reach the ground, but even those that disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere – like the one that caused the Chelyabinsk event in 2013 – can create explosive airbursts and injure anyone who happens to be nearby.🎇
We know well more than 600 000 asteroids in our Solar System. Of these, around 20 000 have an orbit that crosses the Earth’s orbit, and 800 are on ESA’s risk list, meaning that they merit close follow-up observations. We are also sure that this represents only a minor fraction of the actual asteroid population.
So shall we be worried? We will find out that the dinosaurs did not know, in particular:
☄ What is an asteroid and how dangerous can it be?
☄ How can we assess the threat of an asteroid and what can we do to prevent catastrophic impacts?
☄ How can an asteroid be deflected in space?
This event is carried out under a program of, and funded by the European Space Agency (ESA).
💫 Paolo Martino is the Principal Engineer of Hera, ESA’s first Planetary Defense mission.
Graduated in Space Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, he is working for ESA since 2010 where he supported the procurement of satellites in most application domains (Earth Observation, Telecommunication, Navigation and Science), and managed a number of Small Satellite missions and In-Orbit-Demonstration projects developed within the ESA GSTP Technology program.
Working on ESA Asteroid Missions since 2012 he has been deeply involved in the ESA’s Space Safety/Planetary Defense program preparation. He is currently a technical lead for the Hera mission, whose objective is to validate an asteroid deflection technique in collaboration with NASA, thus leading the design and technology developments of the spacecraft, and making sure that it’s ready for launch in 2024 to help defend our planet.