NASAlaunched last month as part of the Dart mission. space vehicle had hit an asteroid named Dimorphos with one precise hit.
The goal of the mission is to destroy an asteroid on a large scale. The worldIt aimed to determine how its direction could be changed to prevent it colliding with.
Launched in November 2021, the spacecraft hit the asteroid when it completed its journey and tried to change its trajectory with its speed. NASA announced yesterday that this experiment was successful.
Scientists have found that the direction of the asteroid Dimorphos, which has an orbit 160 meters wide, has changed, thanks to measurements made through telescopes in space and on Earth.
The size of a football stadium, Dimorphos orbited the five times larger asteroid Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes. As a result of the experiment, Dimorphos approached Didymos and this time was reduced to 11 hours and 23 minutes.
The success of Dart’s mission has shown that threats to Earth can be fought if the goal is not too large and planned in advance.
NASA President Bill Nelson said, “This mission demonstrates that NASA is trying to be prepared for anything the universe throws at us. NASA is serious about defending the planet.”
“A movie “If tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, we discover that an asteroid is threatening the Earth and is large enough to damage the Earth, thank God we have successfully completed this experiment,” said Nelson.
This NASA mission is also proof that the institution is prepared against celestial bodies that could pose a danger to Earth, as in the script for the Netflix hit “Don’t Look Up” and the 1998 “Armageddon” movies.
In the comedy Don’t Look Up, two astronomers, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, were trying to get the attention of the press to warn humanity that a comet that would destroy the Earth was approaching, but they didn’t seem to care.
In the realization of the plan devised by my two astronomers to deflect the comet, obstacles constantly arose.
TO DEVELOP THE PROJECT TAKE SEVEN YEARS
The $ 330 million project was developed over seven years. NASA’s Dart program scientist Dr. Tom Statler, on the other hand, pointed out that the behavior of one asteroid can differ from another and warned not to draw too many conclusions from this experiment.
The experiment was conducted on the asteroid Dimorphos, 11 million kilometers from Earth. Dart’s navigation system, Dart, was able to distinguish the small asteroid Dimorphos from the large asteroid Didymos during the last 50 minutes of its journey.
NASA stated that Dimorphos posed no danger to Earth and that this experiment would not direct the asteroid towards Earth.
The Dart’s camera sent a photo every second until it reached the 160-meter-wide Dimorphos. The photos were cut after the spaceship was destroyed on impact.
Experts say that thanks to sky research and statistical analysis, 95 percent of the asteroids that could destroy all life if they hit Earth have been detected and pose no danger.
But there may be smaller but undetected asteroids that could have a huge impact on humanity.
If an asteroid like Dimorphos hits Earth, a crater 1 kilometer in diameter and hundreds of meters deep can form and the impact will be quite large.
In four years, three spacecraft from the European Space Agency will carry out follow-up studies on the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos, with a mission called Hera.
