On February 15th, a small asteroid plunged into Earth’s atmosphere over Russia, causing damage and injuries. Nobody saw it coming. The same day, astronomers expected asteroid 2012DA14 to make a very close, but harmless, approach to Earth. Both events captured media attention worldwide. It was an educational opportunity not to be missed!

In quick response to this rare coincidence of events, a special webinar presentation for teachers was prepared and presented in both English and French. On February 27, and again on March 1, our Discover the Universe / découverte de l’Univers program met with great success. The two sessions aimed to educate and answer questions about asteroids and meteorite impacts.

We are delighted to report the webinar was an unprecedented success. There were 110 registrations, with 51 in French and 59 in English. Two teachers attended with their classes, projecting the webinar on-screen in the classroom and submitting students' questions. The kids had lots of questions and made it very interesting! Feedback from the webinars has been very positive.

Discover the Universe / découverte de l’Univers is a joint RASC-CASCA-FAAQ Beyond IYA project, and is funded in part by NSERC and CASCA. For more information about our online workshops and webinars, please see:

https://www.discovertheuniverse.ca  and  https://www.decouvertedelunivers.ca