You Can Adopt A Piece Of The Planet For Earth Day
NASA is "selling" off the planet, but don't worry: it's all for a good cause. Curious about how you can get your hands on a part of the Earth? Read on, and get excited, because this activity is perfect for Earth Day with the kids.
Updated May 24 2019, 7:19 p.m. ET
As we approach everyone's favorite holiday, Earth Day, many of us are looking for creative and unique things we can do to help the planet this April 22. Especially when it comes to getting kids and families involved in taking care of the planet, it can feel challenging to reuse activities from year to year. That's why NASA's newest program is such a fun one, no matter your age. In celebration of Earth Day, NASA is allowing you to "adopt" a slice of the planet.
This is how it works. You simply go to this site, type in your name, click "ADOPT!" and your "ownership" certificate is generated. For the real-estate minded among us, it's important to note that you don't actually own whichever part of the planet you adopt.
But you will receive some really educational and interesting information about your little section of the world. As NASA's website explains it, "your personalized adoption certificate will feature data from NASA’s Earth-observing satellites for a randomly assigned location." These random locations average about 55 miles wide, and your certificate includes information such as the air quality and vegetation of the specific location.
What gave NASA the motivation for this fun project?
As Stephen E. Cole, of NASA's Earth Science Communications, explains to The Huffington Post, "With this year’s Adopt The Planet Earth Day activity, we’re really focused on terrestrial adopters and sharing with our fellow inhabitants some of the wealth of NASA data we have freely available about our great Blue Marble."
Something even cooler for some post-Earth Day learning? According to Variety, on April 26, NASA will share their first live-stream views in 4K Ultra HD of Earth from Space! The live feed, which is co-produced by Amazon Web Series, will come in at about 250 miles above the Earth and show us the Earth in a resolution we've never seen before.
All of this serves, of course, the very important purpose of engaging people when it comes to our planet. Because the more people are aware of the Earth, the easier it is to rally together and make changes that benefit our planet and environment long-term.
