‘A new era’: NASA strikes asteroid in key test of planetary defence
LAUREL, United States: Bullseye: A NASA spaceship on Monday struck an asteroid seven million miles away in order to deflect its orbit, succeeding in a historic test of humanity’s ability to prevent a celestial object from devastating life on Earth.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor hit its target, the space rock Dimorphos, at 7.14pm Eastern Time, 10 months after blasting off from California on its pioneering mission.
“We’re embarking on a new era, an era in which we potentially have the capability to protect ourselves from something like a dangerous hazardous asteroid impact,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division.
Dimorphos – a 160-metre asteroid roughly comparable in size to an Egyptian pyramid – orbits a half-mile long big brother called Didymos. Never seen before, the “moonlet” appeared as a speck of light around an hour before the collision.
Its egg-like shape and craggy, boulder-dotted surface finally came into clear view in the last few minutes, as DART raced toward it at roughly 23,500 km per hour.
Nasa scientists and engineers erupted in applause as the screen froze on a final image, indicating that signal had been lost and impact had taken place.
To be sure, the pair of asteroids pose no threat to our planet as they loop the Sun every two of our years.
But Nasa has deemed the experiment important to carry out before an actual need is discovered.
By striking Dimorphos head on, Nasa hopes to push it into a smaller orbit, shaving 10 minutes off the time it takes to encircle Didymos, which is currently 11 hours and 55 minutes.
Ground telescopes – which can’t see the asteroid system directly but can detect a shift in patterns of light coming from it – should provide a definitive orbital period in the coming days and weeks.