NASA’s Dart mission successfully altered the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos. A historic test for the defense of our planet.
This is “a watershed moment for planetary defenseand a decisive moment for humanity”, rejoiced the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, during a press conference on Tuesday. The object of his enthusiasm: the last success of the American space agency , which achieved deflect an asteroid from its path by projecting a ship against its surface at the end of September.
When mission Dart (dart, in English), an unprecedented test mission which should enable humanity to learn how to protect itself from a possible future threat, the ship had deliberately hit his target, the asteroid Dimorphos, satellite of a larger asteroid named Didymos. It has so far circumnavigated Didymos in 11 hours and 55 minutes. The NASA device managed to move it, reducing its orbit by 32 minutessaid the head of the space agency.
It would already have been “considered a huge success if it (the craft) had only reduced the orbit by about 10 minutes. But it actually reduced it by 32 minutes,” he added. With this mission, “Nasa has proven that we are serious as defenders of the planet,” he said.
Dimorphos, located some 11 million kilometers from Earth at the time of impact, measures approximately 160 meters in diameter and poses no danger to our planet.
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Dealing with a potential future collision
After the collision, the telescopes James Webb et Hubblethe most powerful space observatories, revealed detailed views of the impact of NASA’s spacecraft, showing in particular the movement of ejecta, the material torn from the star.
If the goal remains relatively modest compared to the disaster scenarios of science fiction films like “Armageddon”, this unprecedented mission of “planetary defense” is the first to test such a technique. It allows NASA to train in case an asteroid threatens to hit Earth one day.
Currently, none of the known asteroids threatens Earth for the next 100 years, but not all of them are listed yet.