Once again NASA has proven that it is the Protector of the Earth. NASA’s spacecraft mission DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) has successfully punched an asteroid and changed its movement. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is in charge of U.S Science and Technology which includes space and spacecraft.
DART is a NASA space mission which has been designed to test how much spacecraft impact changes the direction of an asteroid by hitting it on the head. DART's mission was begun on 24th November 2021 and on 26th September 2022 NASA’s scientists announced its first successful spacecraft mission.
Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. Their sizes can be varied from the largest 329 miles (530 kilometres) in diameter – to less than 33 feet (10 meters) across. An asteroid’s combined measurement of mass is less than the Earth's Moon. But if one sets on a course to hit the Earth, the effect could be catastrophic - like Hollywood says, Total and Complete Annihilation.
NASA, of course being in the know of this, pre-empted such asteroid attacks to our Earth and DART was conceptualized. With this success, the DART space mission has become one of the most crucial missions in history where for the first time, humans have changed the motion of a celestial object by the kinetic impactor.
DART was initially designed to hit Didymos, a large asteroid with a diameter of 780 meters (0.48 miles). But Didymos is not on a collision course with Earth and therefore it poses no threat to mankind. Whereas Dimorphous was the smallest moonlet asteroid with a diameter of 160 meters and 525 feet and orbits the larger asteroids. Before the DART collision, the orbit period between Didmysos and Dimorphous was 11 hours and 55 minutes. Following the day, when the DART spacecraft crashed into Dimorphous and gave it a headshot, it resulted in a shortening of its orbit period by 32 minutes. This now means that Dimorphous is taking 11 hours and 23 minutes to orbit the larger asteroid.
After the successful deflection of an asteroid, NASA chief Bill Nelson proudly commented in a press statement, “All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it’s the only one we have. This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us. NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet. This is a watershed moment for planetary defence and all of humanity,”
“It’s not the end, It’s just the beginning” is a kind of passion the DART team shows as they continue to work on comprehensive databases to understand the first planetary deflection of an asteroid fully.
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