Giant asteroid blasts ‘near earth’.
Nope, not clickbait for a new blockbuster but actual real news.
Netflix has donated a fragment of a Semychan Pallasite meteorite to Space Park Leicester.
Drawing parallels with fiction and the hit Netflix film Don't Look Up, the donation comes to inspire a new generation of space pioneers.
A 20cm fragment of meteorite will be given to Space Park Leicester by the world’s leading streaming entertainment service.
The donation comes as a 1,082-foot asteroid made one of its closest-known passes to our planet on Tuesday, January 18.
Experts say that one will not come this close again for the next two centuries.
It came within 1.2 million miles of our planet, which means it is classified by NASA as being ‘potentially hazardous’.
The giant rock is around two and a half times the height of the Empire State Building.
Thankfully, unlike the Dibiaski Comet in the film Don't Look Up, it is not on a direct collision course with Earth.
The feature film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two low-level astronomers who make an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system.
Professor Mark Sims, Director of the Space Research Centre, Space Park Leicester, said: “We thank Netflix for this kind donation.
"It will be used to help inspire the next generation of space scientists and engineers and interest in science and technology.
"Space has been in the news recently with events like the James Webb Space Telescope and this new Netflix film is also generating interest, which can only be a good thing.
“Exploring space enables us to answer important questions about our place in the universe and the history of our solar system and Space.
"Its application is a fundamental part of civilisation and the economy.
"The knowledge and technology we gain from the space is hence improving our lives.
"There would be no GPS, solar cells, accurate weather prediction, or monitoring of the global changing climate and earth’s surface without space research.”
Space Park Leicester is a £100m research, innovation and teaching hub home to space-related high-tech companies and researchers.
It is led by the University of Leicester in partnership with Leicester City Council and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP).
The donation is being accepted as part of the outreach programme at the Space Research Centre at Space Park Leicester.
Written by Emily Miller
Emily is a Senior Journalist for Niche Magazine with over a decade of journalism experience. She enjoys going to gigs, visiting galleries and walking in all weathers.
