A spacecraft of NASA successfully hit an asteroid at an extremely fast speed at the evening of Monday (September 26, 2022). This is an unprecedented rehearsal to avoid the possibility of flying objects hitting the earth one day in the future.
However, this time the Dart spacecraft hit a harmless asteroid 9.6 million kilometers away from Earth at a speed of 22,500 kilometers per hour.
Scientists estimate that the impact hit a large pit and sent a series of stones and dust into space. Most importantly, they hope this collision changes the trajectory of the asteroid. The
Dart spacecraft stopped sending radio waves to Earth the moment it hit the asteroid. It will take several days or even weeks for scientists to decide to what extent the asteroid's orbit has changed.
This $325 million project is the first time that NASA has attempted to artificially change the position of an asteroid or any out-of-the-world object.
Astron said that this is not a science fiction movie, but a real situation that may happen.
Scientists firmly believe that the 570 kg Dart spacecraft will not smash 5 billion kg asteroids, but should be enough to shorten the orbit of the asteroids.
Space defense experts prefer to push away the asteroid or comet that threatens the earth, rather than smashing it so that the fragments don't fall back to the earth.
NASA estimates that 25,000 potential deadly space objects not far from the Earth and 140 meters in diameter, but only a small part of them have been discovered. In addition, there are millions of smaller asteroids that can cause large-scale damage, but only 1% of them have been confirmed.
I have to say that this is a serious business that Americans do. Human beings will probably give up their struggles only when the end of the world comes.
