A researcher in a successful asteroid test: – Historic event

A researcher in a successful asteroid test: - Historic event

audition for NASA It was implemented at the end of September, when the Dart spacecraft, which had been launched about a year ago, was launched. It collided with the asteroid Demorphos At a speed of approximately 23,000 kilometers per hour.

The big question was related to Scheme The collision will cause the asteroid Demorphos to change its orbit.

On Tuesday, about two weeks after the collision, NASA wrote in a press release That attempt was successful.

NASA’s Dart spacecraft successfully altered the course of the asteroid in the first test of the planetary defense system, she says.

– Historical

This is the first time that mankind has changed the orbit of a celestial body Something that prompts Artistic Director Terje Wahl at the Norwegian Space Center to extract big words about the accident:

– It is historical that we have changed the course of another celestial body so often, he says and continues:

It shows that we humans have the technical ability to protect ourselves if such threats arise sometime in the future.

Topic Director: Terje Wahl at the Norwegian Space Center describes the successful NASA test as historic. Photo: Norwegian Space Center

Demorphos is about 200 meters in diameter, orbiting a larger asteroid. Wahl says it’s this stadium that has been changed by 32 minutes. Before the collision, Demorphos spent 11 hours and 55 minutes orbiting its older brother’s asteroid. After the collision, NASA measured the time with eleven hours and 23 minutes.

Determines that this asteroid Not It was on a collision course with Earth, and today we don’t know which large asteroids will hit Earth in the next 100 years.

– It could be a disaster

The spacecraft with the English name Double Asteroid Redirection Test, abbreviated Dart, was launched from California in November 2021.

After nearly a year of traveling, he achieved his goal.

– In terms of space travel, traveling that far and reaching the goal is an achievement. NASA thought they would be able to change course, and they did. In addition, they were able to accurately measure trajectory change, says Wahl.

But is this a real test? What would have happened if the Dimorpho strike hit the ground?

Variable trajectory: This image shows the last complete image taken of the asteroid's surface just before the impact.  Photo: HANDOUT

Variable trajectory: This image shows the last complete image taken of the asteroid’s surface just before the impact. Photo: HANDOUT

– If this had hit the ground, then the ground wouldn’t have been flooded, it’s not that big, but it would have been a terrible disaster if it had fallen into a populated area.

You don’t want this asteroid to be on a collision course with Earth. It was a very real object that one had to try to push away.

In comparison, the meteor was like Country in Russia in 2013 Wahl explained that the damage to more than 1,200 people and 2,900 buildings, was only 20 meters in diameter, compared to the dimorpho’s diameter of 200 metres.

He adds that within three years, the European Space Agency (ESA) will send a space probe to the same asteroid, to take new measurements of it and find out what it looked like after the collision.

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Dalila Awolowo

Dalila Awolowo

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