The space probe that crashed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles from Earth has successfully shifted its orbit, NASA said Tuesday as it announced the results of its rescue test.
The space agency attempted the first such test two weeks ago to see if in the future a dangerous asteroid could be pushed out of Earth’s path. The DART spacecraft blasted a crater into the asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, hurling debris into space and creating a comet-like trail of dust and rubble stretching thousands of miles. It took days of telescope observations to determine that the impact changed Dimorphos’ trajectory by 160 meters around the larger asteroid that forms the center of its orbit.
Before the impact, the natural satellite took 11 hours and 55 minutes to go around its asteroid. Scientists had hoped to cut 10 minutes from it, but NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the impact cut the asteroid’s orbit time by about 32 minutes. “This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,” Nelson said during a briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Neither asteroid posed a threat to Earth _ and still does not as they continue their journey around the sun. That’s why scientists chose this pair for the world’s first attempt to alter the position of a celestial body. Launched last year, the DART _ an acronym for Double Asteroid Redirection Test _ which is the size of a vending machine was destroyed when it slammed into the asteroid 11 million kilometers from Earth at a speed of 22,500 km /h. The test cost US$325 million.
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Photo credit: IT’S.