21 Jun 2021

On 28 June, we invite you to take part in the Space Safety Festival, a digital event organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), focusing on the space risks we face and the work being done to keep us safe. The festival will run from 18:00 to 20:00 CEST and you can meet and ask experts about asteroids, the Sun, space debris, cyber-threats, and much more.

During the event, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre will host a session discussing how the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is helping to keep our planet safe. 

Rosita Kokotanekova, ESO Research Fellow, and Remco van den Burg, ESO Astronomer and ELT team member, will talk about comets and asteroids, and about how ESO’s telescopes, including the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), can help us find out more about these objects and thereby keep our planet safe. Tania Johnston, Head of ESO Supernova will moderate the discussion.

To take part in the festival, you need to register for free at this link. Places are limited.

The event is organised in the wake of Asteroid Day that commemorates the Tunguska impact, the most harmful known asteroid event in modern history: on 30 June 1908, a 100-metre asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometres, an air burst that generated an explosion over Siberia. While planet Earth continues to face risks from asteroids, numerous international efforts are being made to make these events preventable. 

We are looking forward to seeing you at the event and telling you more about the role ESO plays in space safety!

The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre

The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cooperation between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). The building is a donation from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS), a German foundation, and ESO runs the facility.