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Dear Bob,
Today is Earth Day, and I want to drop you a line to thank you for your steadfast support of the B612 Foundation’s important work to increase global awareness on the issue of planetary defense and the need to accelerate the discovery of asteroids.
Just yesterday, a 15m rock named Asteroid 2015 HD1 passed Earth, only 0.2 lunar distances away (45,600 miles). HD1 was only discovered by the Tucson-based Mt. Lemmon Survey three days ago on April 18. This reinforces our need to accelerate the discovery of asteroids.
Fortunately, since the launch of the B612 Foundation and the Sentinel Mission, there has been a big shift in the global conversation around asteroid detection. And today, on Earth Day, we have much to celebrate! We couldn’t have done it without your support. Some of our major accomplishments in the last year include:
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Being a founding partner in the global movement for asteroid awareness that will culminate in Asteroid Day on June 30, 2015. Many B612/Sentinel Mission supporters are signers of the 100X Asteroid Declaration and are planning Asteroid Day events.
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Release of our Asteroid Impacts video on Earth Day 2014, using data from The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Organization, shook people’s assumption of how often the Earth is hit by asteroids. This network has never actually detected an atmospheric nuclear explosion, but it instead has detected many multi-kiloton asteroid explosions! The video shows the locations and sizes of asteroid impacts on Earth since 2000, showing that a significant-sized asteroid impacts Earth’s atmosphere on average twice a year! The video has had over 2.5 million views and has been translated into Chinese and Spanish.
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Presenting important new research to the planetary defense community that confirms the Sentinel Space Telescope, a project of the B612 Foundation, in a Venus-like orbit is twice as effective at finding potentially Earth-impacting asteroids than a telescope tied to Earth. This research was unveiled last week at the 4th annual Planetary Defense Conference.
It’s because of your continued support that we’re able to move forward with these important contributions to planetary defense. I hope you’ll continue the advancement of this important field. Thank you.
Best,
Ed Lu
Co-founder, B612 Foundation
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