NASA made history following the DART mission successfully hit the asteroid Dimorphos.
It is the first time that life on Earth has changed the course of a celestial body.
It is also the first mission of its kind to test the possibility of changing the course of dangerous constellations, which might one day threaten life on Earth.
Sherry Weber-Bayer, associate professor of space studies at the University of North Dakota, told the British newspaper, The Independent, that the DART mission is “very important. The impact of a small meteorite or comet nucleus is the only avoidable natural disaster, which might threaten human civilization or the life of a large part of the human race.”
The collision of NASA’s DART spacecraft with a small asteroid 6.8 million miles from Earth in an attempt to change the asteroid’s orbit is a training measure to divert future space rocks that may endanger Earth.
While the asteroid Dimorphos did not pose any threat to Earth, the potential threat from other asteroids or comets is real, even if it is relatively rare, and the results range from large impacts that can wipe out most life on Earth, to close accidents. It doesn’t completely hit the planet, but it disrupts human civilization anyway.
Not all asteroids pose a threat to Earth, as many are in orbits that will never intersect with Earth, while others are so small that they may burn up in Earth’s atmosphere without damage.
