International Asteroid Day — 30 June

On June 30, International Asteroid Day will have everyone looking toward the skies. The holiday was founded after the 2014 release of the film 51 Degrees North, which explores what would happen if an asteroid were to strike London. The film’s creative team (many of whom are scientists) wanted to raise more awareness about the threat of asteroids to earth, and how we can help protect ourselves. To make that happen, they formed a foundation, and in 2015, they celebrated the world’s first International Asteroid Day. There are over one million asteroids in space that could potentially strike the earth, but modern scientists have only discovered about one percent of them. To combat this, Asteroid Day’s founders, as well as a host of accomplished scientists, created the 100X Asteroid Declaration. The declaration aims for scientists to work to increase the rate of asteroid discovery to 100,000 per year within a decade. International Asteroid Day focuses on spreading the word of the declaration and helping fellow Earthlings prepare for a potential asteroid impact.