NASA’S Double Asteroid Redirection Test successfully altered the orbit of an asteroid.
Ever since science uncovered that around 65 million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid crashed into Earth, scientists have been frightened by the possibility of this happening again.
That space rock was believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs, and if an asteroid were to hit Earth again, the loss of life would likely be tremendous.
As such, Nasa has been determined to have a plan in place in the very unlikely event that an asteroid heads toward Earth.
In 2022, the U.S. space agency crashed a spacecraft into a large asteroid dubbed Dimorphos.
While Dimorphos posed no threat to Earth, the mission aimed to test the feasibility of kinetic deflection.
Basically, Nasa attempted and succeeded in altering the asteroid’s route.
In turn, they potentially solidified a method for protecting Earth from future asteroids.
Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson said at the time that this was a “watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity.”
Nelson added that the mission “shows Nasa is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us.”
Now, the successful DART mission details have been shared in a new study in Nature Astronomy.
The study reveals how the asteroid’s trajectory shifted to the orbit of a larger asteroid called Didymos.
It also notes that the impact has likely changed the shape of the asteroid.
“Up to 8% of Dimorphos’s mass may have been displaced or ejected at below the escape velocity of Dimorphos,” the study reads,
“In all impact scenarios simulated here, the DART impact does not produce a conventional impact crater but instead causes global deformation of the target.”
These findings serve as crucial evidence for moving forward with similar missions.
Assessing exactly what happened to Dimorphos is key to applying this technique in the future, experts say.
THE MISSION
Nasa’s DART mission was first set in motion on November 23, 2021.
The spacecraft launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California.
The impact between the craft and the space rock was recorded at exactly 7:14 pm EST on September 26, 2022.
Currently, Nasa says there are no asteroids larger than 140 meters in diameter known to be on a collision course with Earth for the next 100 years.