On Monday (26th) local time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) used a spacecraftCrash into an asteroid at breakneck speed.This is a time to deal with the future “asteroid hitting the earth””, an unprecedented exercise of “defending the planet”.
This exercise in the Milky Way will target a harmless asteroid 7 million miles (regarding 9.6 million kilometers) awayconduct. NASA’s “Dart”‘ (Dart) spacecraftslammed into the space rock at 14,000 miles per hour (22,500 kilometers per hour).
Scientists expect the impact to carve out a crater in the asteroid. And most importantly, the impact will change the asteroid’s orbit.
Telescopes around the world and in space are gearing up to capture this historic moment.The impact of the impact should be immediately visible – “Dart“The spacecraft’s radio signals would stop suddenly — so it might take days or even weeks to determine if, and by how much, the asteroid’s path was altered.
The $325 million mission is the first human attempt to alter the flight path of an asteroid in space, or the position of any natural object in space.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who also tweeted earlier in the day of the exercise, “No, this is not a movie plot.” In a pre-recorded video, he said: “We’re all in ” I’ve seen this scene in movies like Armageddon, and in real life, it’s very likely to happen.”
The target of Monday’s space experiment was a 525-foot (160-meter) asteroid called “Dimorphos.” It is actually a small satellite of “Didymos” five times larger than it. Didymos, which means “twin” in Greek, is a rapidly spinning asteroid that ejected material to form this little companion.
This pair of asteroids and small moons has been orbiting the sun for centuries without threatening the Earthmaking them ideal test subjects for the first human “save the world” experiment.
Launched last November, the vending machine-sized “dart” — also short for “Double Asteroid Redirection Test” — uses applied physics from Johns Hopkins University. Lab-developed new navigation techniques to track targets. The lab is the builder and mission manager of Dart.
In the experiment, another tiny satellite will fly by a few minutes later to take pictures of the impact. So, two weeks ago, an Italian Cubesat satellite was released from the Dart.
Scientists insist the “darts” won’t shatter the tiny moon Dimorphos. The spacecraft weighs only 1,260 pounds (570 kilograms), while the asteroid weighs 11 billion pounds (5 billion kilograms). But that should be enough to shrink its 11-hour, 55-minute orbit around Didymos.
The impact should shorten the orbit by 10 minutes, but the telescope will take anywhere from a few days to nearly a month to verify the new orbit. The scientists noted that the expected 1 percent orbital shift might not sound like much. But they stress that, years later, it will be a huge change.
Planetary defense experts prefer to push a threatening asteroid or comet out of the way with sufficient preparation time, rather than blowing it up and producing multiple pieces that might continue in orbit and land on Earth.
The American non-profit organization “B612 Foundation” (B612 Foundation) has been working on research to protect Earth from asteroid impacts. The group has been promoting experiments like “darts” hitting space rocks since it was founded by astronauts and physicists 20 years ago.
The foundation’s executive director, former astronaut Ed Lu, also warned that, aside from Monday’s high-profile action, the world must do a better job of identifying and tracking the myriad space rocks lurking outside.
According to NASA, there are an estimated 25,000 near-Earth asteroids of lethal size 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter, but apparently less than half have been discovered. And of the millions of smaller space rocks that can cause widespread damage, less than 1 percent of asteroids have been found.
Lu pointed out that the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, built by the National Science Foundation and the US Energy Department, is nearing completion, which promises to give the search for asteroids a boost. to a revolutionary change.
Finding and tracking asteroids, he said, “that’s what this mission is called and what it’s regarding. It’s what has to be done to protect the planet.”
On Monday (26th), NASA used a spacecraft to crash into an asteroid at breakneck speed. This is an unprecedented exercise to “defend the earth” in response to the deadly threat of an “asteroid hitting the earth” in the future.
Awareness map of “Dart” hitting an asteroid. Picture: Retrieved from Haike News
