WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine)– As part of a historic test of mankind’s capacity to save Earth from a possibly catastrophic impact with space rock, a NASA spacecraft purposefully crashed into an asteroid on Monday.
The DART probe of the organization, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, executed a ground-breaking operation on the innocuous and tiny space asteroid known as Dimorphos, which is located around 6.8 million miles from Earth.
According to NBC NEWS, the $325 million project was created to determine whether “nudging” an asteroid may change its trajectory, giving scientists a useful real-world test of planetary security technology.
At 7:14 p.m. ET, the DART spacecraft, which is approximately the size of a vending machine, collided head-on with Dimorphos while traveling at 14,000 mph.
DART’s camera caught real-time images of Dimorphos growing in size as the spacecraft got closer to the asteroid. Before collision, the probe sent back images that revealed the space rock’s jagged, uneven surface in mind-blowing detail.
When the craft’s signal disappeared shortly after sending its final photograph, indicating that the spacecraft had in fact reached its target, cheers broke out.
Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, commended the DART team and said that the multinational team of scientists’ work will help mankind defend Earth against impending asteroids.
NASA may not confirm any adjustments to the space rock’s course for up to a few weeks. The objective is to cut the asteroid’s almost 12-hour orbit down to a few minutes long.
Even a little alteration in an asteroid’s course in a real-world planetary defense scenario, if it is still quite far away, may prevent a catastrophic collision.
Dimorphos, an asteroid that is 525 feet in diameter, revolves around Didymos, a much bigger asteroid that is 2,500 feet wide. According to NASA, neither Didymos nor Dimorphos are a threat to Earth.
The DART spacecraft traveled to its target asteroid for ten months after its November launch into orbit.
The probe wasn’t supposed to make it through the collision. Several minutes after the impact, a tiny, Italian-built satellite that was sent as part of the operation was to fly inside 25 to 50 miles of Dimorphos and take pictures.
Ground-based telescopes will be used in the coming days and weeks to observe Dimorphos and measure its orbit. A voyage headed by the European Space Agency that will launch in 2024 will analyze the asteroid’s impact crater and go further in-depth with Didymos and Dimorphos.
NASA anticipates that the DART collision will reduce Dimorphos’ orbital period around Didymos by up to ten minutes. That comparatively slight shift is anticipated to increase with time. If successful, it would show the value of doing such a maneuver in the presence of a potentially dangerous asteroid that is millions of kilometers distant.
The DART mission serves as a proof-of-concept for the use of asteroid diversion in planetary defense. Data from the experiment will help NASA comprehend how the concept may be used in the future in addition to proving if it works.
It is the responsibility of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office to look for nearby objects that might endanger the earth. Although scientists have cautioned that only a small portion of smaller near Earth objects have been discovered, the agency stated that no known asteroid bigger than 450 feet across has a serious risk of reaching Earth in the next 100 years.
According to Bruce Betts, chief scientist of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization that undertakes research, lobbying, and outreach to support space travel, the fear of “killer asteroids” may seem unreal, but it is all too real.
The Chicxulub asteroid, estimated to have been 6 to 10 miles large, crashed into Earth 66 million years ago, causing a rapid global extinction. This event is the best-known occurrence of a devastating impact. Nearly three-quarters of all animal and plant species that were present on Earth at the time were also wiped out in the catastrophe, which also wiped off the dinosaurs.
When a space rock detonated over a remote area of Siberia in 1908, it was the greatest asteroid impact in history. According to NASA, the catastrophe, which became known as the “Tunguska explosion,” destroyed trees on 500,000 acres of virgin forest. There are still unanswered questions regarding the Tunguska disaster, but experts have determined that a space rock between 164 and 262 feet wide most likely caused the collision.
Even far tiny space pebbles have the potential to do significant harm.
A space rock the size of a tennis court that was about 65 feet wide flashed through the sky in 2013 above Chelyabinsk, Russia, before exploding in the atmosphere at a distance of around 20 miles.
According to NASA, the explosion generated energy roughly equal to 440,000 tonnes of TNT. Over hundreds of square kilometers, the explosion and its shock wave destroyed trees and broke out windows. Over 1,600 individuals suffered injuries.
Betts expressed his hope that the DART mission will help spread the word about the value of planetary defense.
