NASA ‘s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) managed to successfully impact its target, asteroid Dimorphos, on Monday, September 26, 2022, at just over 1 a.m. (01:14 a.m. to be more exact). , after 10 months of flying through space. It was the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration and NASA’s first attempt to move an asteroid in space. We can say that the operation has been successful.
deflecting asteroids
It is a pioneering mission. Dimorphos, a 160-meter asteroid comparable in size to an Egyptian pyramid, orbits an older brother named Didymos. The 570-kilogram spacecraft was flying at a speed of approximately 22,530 kilometers per hour at the time of impact.
NASA scientists and engineers burst into applause as the screen froze on a final image, indicating that the signal had been lost and the impact had occurred. By hitting the asteroid head-on, the US space agency hopes to push it into a smaller orbit, shaving 10 minutes off the total time it takes to circle Didymos, which is currently 11 hours and 55 minutes.
During the spacecraft’s final moments before impact and destruction, its Didymos Optical Navigation and Asteroid Reconnaissance Camera (DRACO) took four images capturing its terminal approach as its Dimorphos asteroid target increasingly filled the field of view. vision. . As it approached the asteroid, the DART spacecraft transmitted these images from its DRACO camera back to Earth in real time. At the end, Dimorphos fills the entire field of vision, just as he collides with it. The last complete image of the small moon is about 12 kilometers from the asteroid and 2 seconds before impact.
Joining DART was the LICIACube cubesat, which separated from DART a few days ago and passed close to the impact site to capture images of the collision and ejecta — the pulverized rock thrown up by the impact. LICIACube photos will be sent in the coming weeks and months.
Very few of the billions of asteroids and comets in our solar system are considered potentially dangerous to Earth, but it’s best to be prepared when the time comes. DART has been only the first step. This success marks the course to follow in a hypothetical situation that threatens our survival.
“At its core, DART represents an unprecedented success for planetary defense, but it is also a unity mission with real benefit to all of humanity,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release. “As NASA studies the cosmos and our home planet, we’re also working to protect that home, and this international collaboration turned science fiction into science fact, demonstrating a way to protect Earth.”
Reference: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
