NASA’s DART smashes into Dimorphos 6.8 million miles from Earth in the first planetary defense test that could be used to save our planet from catastrophic collision with a space rock
- NASA’s DART craft has completed its mission to crash into an asteroid in the first planetary defense test
- The agency aimed to nudge Dimorphos asteroid from its orbit, but NASA will not know the results right way
- If it was successful, thee technique could be used to push an asteroid heading to Earth away from colliding with our planet
NASA‘s DART spacecraft has completed the first planetary defense test after it impacted the asteroid Dimorphos while traveling 15,000 miles per hour.
Confirmation came seconds after the 7:14pm ET collision, sparking an applause among the ground team.
‘Humanity 1 – Asteroid ,’ a commentator of the livestream said, noting how incredible it is that humans carried out such an epic mission.
Scientists expected the impact carved out a crater, hurled streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, altered the asteroid´s orbit – NASA will not know the results until a later date.
The space probe used what is called kinetic impact, which involves sending one or more large, high-speed spacecraft into the path of an approaching near-earth object.
By striking Dimorphos head on, NASA hopes it pushed it into a smaller orbit, shaving 10 minutes off the time it takes to encircle Didymos, which is currently 11 hours and 55 minutes – a change that will be detected by ground telescopes in the days or weeks to come.
Such a mission may evoke memories of a Hollywood disaster movie such as Armageddon, but this is very much real and could save Earth from colliding with a deadly space rock.
"We have impact."
Watch the moment a NASA spacecraft collides into an asteroid 7 million miles away, with Dart plowing into the small space rock at 14,000 mph. https://t.co/5q9vuVtdc0 pic.twitter.com/49w4W7pZM1
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 26, 2022
Bill Nelson, NASA’s administrator, said in a November interview that DART ‘is something of a replay of Bruce Willis’s movie, ‘Armageddon,’ although that was totally fictional.’
As the craft propels itself autonomously for the mission’s final four hours like a self-guided missile, its imager will start to beam down the very first pictures of Dimorphos, before slamming into its surface.
