Close the job! Earth-defense drills succeed, the DART spacecraft crashes into an asteroid. Dimorphos at a speed of 22,000 km per hour It was the first mission in history to deal with an extraterrestrial meteor.
Today (27 Sep. 2022) PageFacebook NARIT National Astronomical Research Institute reported that at 6:16 a.m. this morning In Thailand time, the DART spacecraft crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos at a speed of 22,000 kilometers per hour.
causing the spaceship to be completely destroyed. And able to send the last fraction of the photo data back successfully. This marks the completion of the mission of DART.
Dr. Tiphon Tangmatitham, an astronomy scholar, said that this picture It is the last photographic series of the ship.DART space or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test in the last fraction of a second before crashing into the surface of asteroid Dimorphos and the spacecraft completely destroyed during the final transmission of the image.
But this collision wasn’t all that shocking. on the contrary Instead, it’s a delight for the engineers. and many scientists involved in this project. because it was a collision as planned This marks the end of the DART mission and the beginning of many studies that will follow.
Closing job mission to save the world
This DART mission is a mission designed. To study the possibility of preventing danger from near-Earth asteroids Just as we may be familiar with in movies such as Armageddon, Deep Impact, or Don’t Look Up, it indicates the possibility that a large meteorite might one day hit Earth.
in fact We already know that meteorites can collide with Earth. More than 17,000 meteorites fall to Earth each year, but most of them are too small to be dangerous for any living thing. and most often fall into the ocean or remote areas where no people live.
However, from time to time there will be meteorites that are larger than that. that may be able to harm life on Earth in a wide area Just like 66 million years ago The 10-15 km meteorite crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula. in present-day mexico causing a great extinction that made the dinosaurs extinct and change the face of life on earth forever
Sooner or later there might be another meteor. that are about to collide with our world in the future Today we have many projects and telescopes. that observes and keeps track of meteorites that may harm the world in the future can help find large meteorites that may “Destroy the world” as well. And I’m pretty sure we’ll be safe from such dangers for a long time.
and the better the observation technology We may be able to find smaller meteorites that may collide with Earth. and can deal smaller damage in the near future.
One idea is to protect against these meteorites. Is to send a spacecraft into the morning collided with an asteroid. to change its trajectory. And DART’s main mission is to explore this possibility.
The spacecraft crashed into the moon Dimorphos orbiting the asteroid Didymos, which if the mission was successful.
Read more watch! DART spacecraft crashes into asteroid Earth protection drills on 27 Sept.
Image: NASA
Image: NASA
First time in history to deal with an extraterrestrial meteor
Scientists will be able to observe and measure changes in the trajectory. from the changing period and orbital radius of this satellite asteroid Because this collision only changes the trajectory of the satellite’s orbit. Therefore, there is absolutely no danger that may be a threat to the world in the future.
Scientists will now study the consequences of crashing into the camera. More than 40 terrestrial telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb, will study the changing trajectory of the asteroid system after the impact.
There is also LICIACube, a small spacecraft launched with DART that will study the dust that may be generated from the crash.
The DART mission marks the first time in history that an extraterrestrial defense system has been tested. This task will allow us to understand the navigation system. The challenge of building a spaceship that will crash
and help test and confirming the principles of protection against extraterrestrial dangers in the future If one day in the future we will have to prevent danger from the real world. A mission like this will help prepare us for the days we hope never to come.