The Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology (SAASST) celebrated on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, the International Asteroid Day. The main objectives of the asteroid day are to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard, save the Earth from asteroids, and increase the asteroid discovery rate to 100,000 per year compared to a couple of hundreds per year. These goals can be achieved by using new technologies to detect and track Near-Earth-Asteroids (NEA) that threaten human populations. SAASST is within these objectives with its “Meteorite Center” and its different units, i.e., the “Analysis Unit,” “Machine Learning,” “Drone Unit,” and the “UAEMMN Unit.” In addition, seven various lectures on different topics related to asteroids were given by SAASST staff.
The whole program was given through an online attendance, and it was a great success. More than 50 students from the University of Sharjah summer astronomy class (Sec. 12E) attended the whole workshop. The students were very enthusiastic, as witnessed from their questions about the different topics presented by the lecturers. A certificate of attendance has been sent to each attendee.
