NASA spacecraft deflects asteroid in Earth test
The US space agency “NASA” announced that it has succeeded in diverting an asteroid in a historic test of humanity’s ability to prevent a celestial body from destroying life on Earth.
Agency chief Bill Nelson said the refrigerator-sized “Double Asteroid Redirect Test” vehicle deliberately collided with the asteroid Demorvos on September 26 and pushed it into a smaller and faster orbit around another larger asteroid called Didymos.
The double asteroid reorientation test “shortened the orbital period from 11 hours 55 minutes to 11 hours 23 minutes,” Nelson said.
“This is a defining moment in the defense of the planet and a defining moment for humanity,” Nelson stressed, stressing that NASA “has proven that we are serious in our defense of the Earth.”
Demorphos, which is about 160 meters in diameter, poses no threat to Earth.
And if its goal is modest compared to the scenarios of a number of science fiction films such as “Armageden,” this unprecedented test mission inaugurates the era of training how humanity will defend itself if an asteroid threatens life on Earth in the future.