A spacecraft sent by NASA to shove a small asteroid, that is millions of miles away, successfully shifted the orbit of the asteroid.
NASA started the test a fortnight ago in preparation for any future threat on Earth by atmospheric rocks. They wanted to see if they could change the direction of an asteroid and get it out of Earth’s way.
Bill Nelson, NASA’s Administrator, said the mission proved that the agency would be ready for whatever the universe threw in our way.
The agency’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) showed signs of success two weeks ago, on September 26, when the spacecraft hit the space rock Dimorphos. The spacecraft shattered the rock, created a huge trail of debris, dust, and rubble visible from the Earth, and stretched thousands of miles. It took days of telescope observations to determine how much the collision changed the course of the 160-meter asteroid around its bigger parent asteroid.
Before the spacecraft’s impact, it took 11 hours and 55 minutes for Dimorphos to circle its parent asteroid. Although NASA scientists had expected a 10-minute change, the agency’s statement said that the collision shortened Dimorphos’ orbit by about 32 minutes. That’s considered a big deal.
An elated Lori Glaze, Director of Planetary Science for NASA, said that this was the first-time humans had changed the orbit, which was almost impossible.
Rusty Schweickart, the co-founder of B612 Foundation, a nonprofit working toward protecting Earth from asteroid attacks, said he was thrilled with the DART Mission results and the attention that asteroid deflection was now getting.
The DART Mission scientists said that the debris Dimorphos left in its trail also played a huge role in the outcome. They added that although the impact had left the asteroid a little shaky, which may affect the orbit, it would never return to its original location.
Originally, Dimorphos and its parent asteroid, Didymos, were only about three quarters of a mile apart. After the impact, they got a little closer.
NASA picked the two asteroids for the test mission because they did not pose a threat to Earth, and even after the impact, they were still harmless to the planet.
According to planetary defense experts, it is better to nudge an asteroid or comet out of Earth’s way, especially if we have years and decades’ lead time, than to blow it up and create many pieces of space rocks that could all come down on Earth.
Nancy Chabot, the DART Mission leader and a scientist from the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University, said that for the technique to be effective in the future, scientists must have enough warning time.
When the DART spacecraft was first launched last year, it got destroyed when it smashed into Dimorphos at a speed of 14,000 mph.
The DART team scientists said they needed to do more work, identify more space rocks, and determine their makeup. Before launching space crafts, scouting missions would be necessary to change the rocks’ orbits.
Tom Statler, a NASA scientist, said that although one test was not enough to determine how other rocks would behave in the same situation, the team was thrilled because their dreams were finally coming true.
Good to know that we may be able to deflect a space rock that could threaten us to end up like the dinosaurs.
