NASAlaunched last month as part of the Dart mission. space vehicle had hit an asteroid called Dimorphos with a precise hit.
The mission’s goal is to destroy a large-scale asteroid. WorldIt aimed to determine how its direction could be changed to prevent it from 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 detected that the direction of the asteroid Dimorphos, which has a 160-meter-wide orbit, has changed, thanks to the measurements they made through telescopes in space and on Earth.
The size of a football stadium, Dimorphos was orbiting 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.
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The success of Dart’s mission has shown that threats to Earth can be fought if the target is not too big and planned ahead.
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 film “If we find out tomorrow the day after tomorrow that an asteroid is threatening the Earth, and it’s big enough to harm the Earth, thank God we’ve successfully carried out this experiment,” Nelson said.
This mission of NASA is also a proof that the institution is prepared against celestial bodies that may pose a danger to the Earth, as in the script of Netflix’s hit movies “Don’t Look Up” and 1998’s “Armageddon”.
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.
Obstacles were constantly emerging in the realization of the plan devised by my two astronomers to deflect the comet.
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THE PROJECT TAKE SEVEN YEARS TO DEVELOP
The $330 million project was developed over seven years. NASA’s Dart program scientist Dr. Tom Statler, on the other hand, emphasized that the behavior of one asteroid may 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 did not pose any danger to the Earth, and that this experiment would not direct the asteroid towards Earth.
The camera on the Dart sent a photo every second until it hit the 160-metre-wide Dimorphos. The photos were cut after the spacecraft was destroyed at the time of impact.
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Experts say that thanks to sky research and statistical analysis, 95 percent of asteroids that could destroy all life if they hit the Earth have been detected and that they do not pose any danger.
But there may be smaller yet undetected asteroids that could have huge impacts 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.
Four years from now, three European Space Agency spacecraft will carry out follow-up studies on the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos, with a mission called Hera.
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