The NASA mission showed that it is possible to deflect an asteroid from its trajectory

The NASA mission showed that it is possible to deflect an asteroid from its trajectory

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The loss of life on Earth due to the fall of an asteroid is the focus of many science fiction plots. To check whether such a development could really be prevented, NASA sent a mission to one of them.

Her results made public in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy, informs The Conversation.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) is a spacecraft mission that launched in November 2021. He was sent to an asteroid called Dimorphos, which he was “ordered” to collide with.

Dimorphos does not pose any threat to Earth in the near future. The purpose of the mission was to check whether it is possible to knock an asteroid off course with the help of a man-made object.

A high-speed collision with an asteroid requires incredible precision. Dimorphos is part of a binary asteroid system in which the smaller object orbits the larger one. The larger asteroid in it is Dimidus.

The device weighing 580 kilograms at a speed of 6 km/s crashed into an asteroid weighing about 5 billion kilograms. This is equivalent to an ant colliding with two buses.

Simulations based on the observations showed that Dimorphos is now orbiting the larger asteroid Dimidus 33 minutes slower than before. Its orbit decreased from 11 hours 55 minutes to 11 hours 22 minutes.

The change in momentum to the Dimorphos core is also higher than would be expected from a direct collision.

The asteroid has a rather weak structure and consists of individual stones that are held together by gravity. The collision resulted in many of them “breaking away” from Dimorphos.

Currently, these pebbles are moving in the opposite direction to the impact. This slows the asteroid down.

Scientists estimate that the impact of the asteroid made it lighter by 20 million kilograms.

At the same time, scientists do not reject the potential risk of damage and death of people from falling asteroids. An important indicator of whether humanity can prevent it is the amount of time to intervene. Dart only changed Dimorphus’ orbit by 33 minutes, which won’t matter much if the asteroid is very close to Earth.

If humanity can predict the trajectory of an asteroid from a greater distance, preferably outside the solar system, this may be enough to deflect it away from our planet.

We will remind, on the surface of asteroids discovered for the first time water