Last September, NASA collided a spacecraft with an asteroid to see what would happen. A research team led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has published a paper explaining that the successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission isn’t just for fun, that humanity could deflect asteroids and truly save the planet.NASA can defend Earth
In a blog post published by NASA, APL writer Ajai Raj said that the “kinetic impact” technique, which he describes as “knocking one thing against another”, is indeed an effective method for planetary defense. NASA’s DART mission did just that; The spacecraft collided with the asteroid and its orbit was changed. The asteroid known as Dimorphos posed no threat to Earth, but the purpose of the experiment was to test feasibility.
As calculated in one of the articles, the mission carried out on September 26 last year changed the orbit of the asteroid lunar fragment Dimorphos by 33 minutes. The DART spacecraft hurled debris from the asteroid known as ejecta into space at the point of impact. The rebound effect of the debris was found to contribute more to the asteroid’s momentum change than the collision itself.It has been confirmed that relatively small (170 meters in diameter) asteroids like Dimorphos can be successfully deflected by this method and no prior reconnaissance missions are needed. However, scientists also underline that they should learn about such a threat to the Earth at least a few years beforehand. Additionally, according to the APL, there are no asteroid threats to Earth for the next century, at least as far as is known.
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