NASA Director Bill Nelson said the mission of the space agency to disorient the car-sized asteroid Dimorph from orbit was successful. The impact space detector dual asteroid redirection test (DART) can change the flight path of celestial bodies. This is the first time that humans have successfully knocked an asteroid out of orbit.
An image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on October 8, 2022 showed debris erupting from the surface of Dimorph 285 hours after the DART detector hit the asteroid. The shape of the tail is visible to change over time.
Last November, the SpaceX's heavy Falcon 9 rocket launched a 633 kg DART impact detector. On September 27 this year, it finally hit and hit the Dimorph asteroid with a diameter of 160 meters, about 11 million kilometers from Earth. The space accident, which took place at a speed of 6.2 kilometers per second, was observed by Italian cube satellite LICIACube, which separated from DART five days before the collision.
Dimorph orbits another female asteroid Didyma. The orbital time around it is 11 hours and 55 minutes. After the collision, the period was shortened by 32 minutes, and astronomers concluded that the trajectory of the celestial body had deflected.
"Our results are an important step towards understanding how the probe collides with an asteroid," said Laurie Glaz , director of NASA's Planetary Sciences Division. – With new data emerging every day, astronomers will be able to better evaluate whether and how to use tasks like DART to help protect Earth from asteroid impacts if we find an asteroid heading in our direction. "
's mission to change the orbit of the asteroid is the first time in 's history. It has given humanity hope that humanity can successfully shoot down space objects that are potentially dangerous to the earth. Dimorph does not pose such a danger and is specifically used as a "training" object. NASA said they will continue to monitor the asteroid, monitor its orbit, and intend to study impact craters.
