L‘Asteroid Day, a bit like a planet stranded on earth, extends its mark. After a one-day edition last year, the event, supported by the International Center for Research and Restitution on Impacts and on Rochechouart (Cirir) offers a three-day festival in the same place, or almost, since part of the site, where the Rochechouart meteorite landed 200 million years ago, is located in Haute-Vienne.
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The date of the event, even extended by two days, remains unchanged since it corresponds to the anniversary of the Tunguska event, which occurred on June 30, 1908, in Siberia, which saw a meteorite ravage the Siberian forest over a radius of twenty kilometers.
Remembering that “we live under threat”, says the organization, is one of the reasons for this Asteroid Day. Defense space missions will, in fact, be on the menu of a conference on Saturday evening the day after a round table on Friday evening which will have as its starting point the 2021 film “Don’t look up”.
If we will be reassured to learn that a scenario of annihilation à la Netflix is to be excluded, that of 1908 is not. “Scientists have been working on this. We know that the Earth will not be destroyed but an impact like in Russia can cause damage,” says Philippe Lambert, the organizer.
“We know that the Earth will not be destroyed. »
For three days, the event, completely free, will mix the fun and the scientific, the anecdotal and the serious. With the presence of around thirty men of science. “If we have a thousand visitors, we will be satisfied. The elections are bad,” recognizes Philippe Lambert, who will be deprived, on Sunday, of his planetarium, installed in the village hall which will serve as a polling station.
After two evenings of looking up to the sky, Friday and Saturday, at 11 p.m., for a vigil under the stars, everything will end, and that is perhaps the main thing, in poetry, with “Cœur de Pierre”, Sunday, at 5 p.m., a musical, playful, poetic and initiatory show-story to escape.
Three days with my head in the stars
Friday. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., continuous activities: à la carte planetarium (free visit). Cassinomagus (free visits). Workshops and games (astronomy, science and culture). SpaceBus (escape game). Meteorites. Telescopes. Exhibitions. Documentary screenings and cartoons. Walks. Discussions with scientists…
2:30 p.m.-4 p.m., asteroid throwing competition. 4 p.m., drone flights applied geology archeology. 8 p.m., round table “Defend the Earth”, screening of “Don’t look up!” “. 9 p.m., conference “Idefix and the Japanese MMX mission to the moons of Mars”, by Simon Tardivel (Cnes).
SATURDAY. 9:30 a.m., hike to Pressignac. 12 p.m.-7 p.m., continuous activities (see Friday).
2:30 p.m.-4 p.m., asteroid launch. 4 p.m., drone flights. 6 p.m., conference “Everything you need to know about asteroids” by Patrick Michel. and Paolo Tanga (Observatoire Côte d’Azur). 8 p.m., conference: “Space defense and asteroid harvesting missions”. 9 p.m., conference “Fripon, meteorite harvest in France” by François Colas (Paris and Pic du Midi Observatories). 11 p.m., astronomy, vigil to the stars.
Sunday. 12 p.m.-6 p.m., continuous activities (see Friday) except planetarium.
2-3:30 p.m., asteroid throwing competition and drone flights. 3:30 p.m., official ceremony of National Asteroid Day, awards ceremony to the winners of the games and competitions. Round table “Our asteroid impact, its valuation, the Cirir”. Balance sheet. 5 p.m., “Heart of Stone” show.
Free. For all.
