Asteroid Day event will feature talk, fulldome show

A special Asteroid Day event will take place at 6 p.m. June 28 at the University of Nebraska State Museum at Morrill Hall, 645 N. 14th St.

The free event will include a short presentation by Frans von der Dunk, Perlman Alumni and Othmer Professor of Space Law at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, one of the original signatories to the Asteroid Day Declaration. He will explain the legal ramifications of space debris and near-Earth objects hitting the planet.

Visitors will experience the fulldome feature “Firefall,” about cosmic collisions and violent impacts throughout the solar system’s history; and a featurette about the B612 Sentinel program, designed to help better detect near-Earth objects.

Guests will receive free admission to Morrill Hall and Mueller Planetarium. The event is targeted for adults and teens, though children 8 and older may find it enjoyable. Children 3 and under are not permitted in the planetarium.

The event is presented by Mueller Planetarium and the University of Nebraska College of Law’s Space, Cyber and Telecommunications Law program.

Asteroid Day is a global movement to increase public awareness of potential asteroid collisions and how to protect Earth. The movement was founded in 2015 by Brian May, astrophysicist and lead guitarist for the rock band Queen; Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart; and German filmmaker Grig Richters. Asteroid Day is on June 30 to mark Earth’s largest asteroid impact in recorded history, the Siberia Tunguska event in 1908, which devastated more than 1,200 square miles, the size of a major metropolitan city.