A mysterious death due to a blast at a college in Indian state of Tamil Nadu’s Vellore town later turned out to be meteorite crash, a development that was confirmed at a leading state-run laboratory. While this particular incident was confirmed, many more like this in smaller places and inhabited areas may pass off unnoticed or as mysteries due to lack of awareness.

In order to make people aware about the dangers of an asteroid strike on Earth, an international band of experts in the field last year decided to observe June 30 as the International Asteroid Day. The scientists, as part of preparations for the second annual Asteroid Day, recently gathered to debate the future of asteroid research and how to avoid these.

The Asteroid Day is a commemoration to a large meteorite blast above the remote Russian countryside on June 30, 1908, which flattened 770 square miles (1,990 square kilometers) of forest.

The scientists have planned another major debate, to be organized at the European Space Research and Technology Centre, which would see a panel of experts discuss the need for more study of asteroids as well as a commitment to preventing a large body from striking the Earth.

The researchers said though major asteroid strikes that are big enough to threaten people are rare to occur, they have been seen as inevitable over the time. Citing an example, the scientists said on February 13, 2015, a meteor fell near Chelyabinsk in Russia and exploded around 18 miles (29 km) above the Earth's surface. Such severe were the shock waves that 1,500 people were injured.

“An event like Chelyabinsk happens about once every 50 years, and we don't have a system designed to discover and track these things”, said Mark Boslough, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories who is one of the founders of Asteroid Day.