‘Not a movie plot,’ but NASA project sure feels like one

In reality, dart asteroid project has potential to save planet

Sometimes, it feels like science is imitating pop culture, doesn’t it?

Such was the case with NASA’s latest experiment, in which a spacecraft rammed into an asteroid. Remind anyone one of a blockbuster movie? NASA’s goal was to see if the impact would be enough to alter the asteroid’s orbit.

“The galactic slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 7 million miles away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the space rock at 14,000 mph,” the Associated Press reports.

The space rock in question is a 525-foot asteroid named Dimorphos, which has been orbiting near the sun for eons.

The impact was obvious – footage showed Dart approaching the asteroid before the signal stopped abruptly upon impact.

But scientists won’t know how successful it was for months as they work to determine if the asteroid’s path changed at all.

The impact wasn’t expected to implode the asteroid, but instead to adjust its orbit. If scientists are right, the impact will shave about 10 minutes off the orbit, an anticipated orbital shift of 1%, AP reports.

It isn’t much – but over time, it will add up significantly.

And if that was an asteroid headed for Earth, every shift counts.

NASA’s Administrator Bill Nelson noted, “No, this is not a movie plot.”

He remarked, “We’ve all seen it on movies like ‘Armageddon,’ but the real-life stakes are high.” Indeed they are.

The odds of a massive asteroid striking the Earth are statistically small, but they can’t be discounted. After all, it’s happened before.

At least three asteroid impacts on Earth have caused mass-extinction events.

The most famous, for lack of a better phrase, happened roughly 66 million years ago, when an asteroid hit what’s now Mexico, killing off the dinosaurs. Popular Science notes that asteroid was about 6 miles wide, hitting with the force of “10 billion nuclear bombs.” The resulting debris cast a haze over the sun, chilling Earth and making plants and food scarce, killing 75 percent of the species alive on Earth at the time, Popular Science reports.

The magazine puts the odds of an asteroid that size hitting Earth at about one in every 50 million to 100 million years.

And to put this in perspective, Dimorphos is a 525-foot asteroid. The asteroid behind the dinosaurs’ mass extinction was thought to be 6 miles, or roughly 31,680 feet wide.

However, an asteroid Dimorphos’ size could cause regional devastation, Nature notes.

It’s the first time in history humans have attempted to alter the path of an asteroid. And the jury’s still out before it’s known if the project was a success – and then, scientists have to figure out how to achieve a similar result with bigger asteroids.

While it certainly feels like the plot of a movie, it’s fascinating to see science in action. And for the sake of the planet, hopefully, science is on the right path!