Astronomers have criticized comments describing the planetary defense mission carried out by the US space agency “NASA”, as “recreational spending” that is useless, at a time when the world is suffering from economic crises.
The cost of the experiment carried out by “NASA” to test the possibility of changing the orbit of the asteroid “Demorphos”, on the way of collision with it by the double asteroid redirection vehicle (DART), was about 330 million dollars.
Muhammad Shawkat Odeh, head of the International Astronomy Center in the UAE, told Al-Ain News, “Protecting the Earth from any future danger is worth spending this amount and more.”
He adds: “It is true that there are no asteroids currently on a collision course with Earth, but the possibility of finding asteroids threatening the Earth remains a possibility, and therefore, it is necessary to prepare with tools to confront this danger.”
In recent history, there are no serious collisions, but some very minor accidents caused great losses, which made there fear that an accident with risk factors might cause huge material and human losses, as Odeh explains.
Among the minor incidents that Odeh refers to was a meteor explosion in Russia five years ago, although it did not reach the ground and exploded in the air, but it caused material losses in the area of the explosion.
There is also the Tunguska eruption in 1908 near the Tunguska River in Podkamennaya, Russia, too, which occurred in an uninhabited area, and the cause of this explosion is still mysterious, and it is one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century, and one of the hypotheses that are presented to explain this explosion was that it was caused by A mysterious comet or UFO that was at an altitude of 10 kilometers from Earth.
And agrees with the previous opinion, Majed Abu Zahira, head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, who told Al-Ain News that “during recent decades, astronomers have realized the possibility of asteroids colliding with Earth, and this is a very real possibility, and therefore it is important for a planet of 7.6 billion A human being needs to understand the potential asteroid threat, be tracked and discuss what we might do if an asteroid was on a collision course a few years before that event.”
He explains that an automatic monitoring system has been established that always scans the latest data of asteroids in search of the possibility of future collisions with Earth within the next 100 years, and as part of NASA’s planetary defense strategy, the spacecraft collision experiment (DART) with the asteroid (Demorphos) demonstrates a new technology that can be To apply to protect our planet if an asteroid or comet is discovered in a confirmed collision course with the Earth, which means that this experience is of real benefit to all of humanity, as if science fiction turns into reality.”
He added: “Every experiment that serves humanity and maintains the safety of our planet is worth spending money, and the success of NASA’s experiment will provide an important addition to protecting our planet from any devastating asteroid collision, and this shows that we are no longer unable to prevent this type of natural disaster.”