ABD National Air Force and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Applied Physics of Johns Hopkins University, the first experiment to test a “method of planetary defense” against objects close to the Earth, the Double Asteroid Orientation Test (DART) has reached its destination. In a written statement released by NASA, it was reported that the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos, which was hit by the spacecraft launched by NASA as part of the DART mission on September 27, has changed.
NASA confirmed that the spacecraft’s impact changed Dimorphos’s orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, reducing the orbit from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours and 23 minutes, taking measurements using a range of space telescopes. and terrestrial. Prior to the collision, NASA had estimated that the minimum successful orbital period change for Dimorphos was 73 seconds or more. Early data shows that DART outperforms this minimum benchmark by more than 25 times.
“This mission demonstrates that NASA is trying to be ready for everything the Universe has to offer,” said NASA President Bill Nelson, noting that it demonstrated how serious NASA is to defend the Earth.
Lori Glaze, Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, said in a statement, “This achievement is an important step towards understanding the full impact of DART’s impact with the target asteroid.” As new data arrives every day. , astronomers will be able to better assess if and how a mission like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from colliding with an asteroid. “
FIRST EXPERIMENT OF DEFENSE OF THE PLANET
NASA launched the DART mission in November 2021 to determine if it was possible to prevent large asteroids from hitting Earth. Launched as part of the mission, the spacecraft crashed into an asteroid called Dimorphos, 11 million kilometers from Earth, at around 02:15 CEST on September 27. DART is the first experiment to test a method of planetary defense against objects close to the Earth.
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