Picture

‘Oumuamua interstellar object (left) and asteroid Bennu (right), which is being studied by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx for a sample-return mission. Image credits: ‘Oumuamua: ESO/M. Kornmesser; Bennu: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

Danica Remy, a fourth generation Marinite and a 43-year Mill Valley resident, is in Luxembourg this weekend for Asteroid Day, an Earth Day-style event designed to raise awareness of the potentially catastrophic risk of an impact with an asteroid.

The event is held worldwide each year on June 30, the anniversary of the Siberian Tunguska event in 1908 that was the most harmful known asteroid-related event on Earth in recent history. Remy is the president of the B612 Foundation, an organization that was co-founded by Apollo 9 astronaut and former Tiburon resident Russell “Rusty” Schweickart in 2002 and named after the asteroid in Antoine de St. Exupéry’s story The Little Prince.

Remy co-founded the event along with Schweickart, filmmaker Grigorij Richters and Brian May, the Queen guitarist and astrophysicist. Remy works out of B612’s downtown Mill Valley office, while some of her colleagues work at offices in Menlo Park, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Boulder, Colo. and around the world.

Check out our earlier story on the work of the B612 Foundation.

The 411: B612 Foundation is entirely funded by private donations. MORE INFO.

Want to know what’s happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!