Astronomers have criticized comments describing the planetary defense mission carried out by the US space agency “NASA” as unnecessary “recreational spending” at a time when the world is suffering from the economic crisis.
The cost of the experiment conducted by “NASA” to test the possibility of changing the orbit of the asteroid “Demorphos”, colliding with it by the double asteroid redirection vehicle (DART), was about 330 Millions of dollars.
Muhammad Shawkat Odeh, head of the International Astronomy Center in the United Arab Emirates, told Al-Ain News: “This amount and more is worth spending to protect the Earth from any future danger.”
He adds: “It is true that there are currently no asteroids on a collision course with Earth, but the possibility of finding asteroids threatening the Earth remains a possibility, and therefore it is necessary to prepare with tools to deal with this danger.”
There are no major collisions in recent history, but some very minor accidents have caused large losses, which raised concerns that an accident with risk factors could cause huge material and human losses, as Odeh explains.
Among the minor incidents Odeh refers to was a meteor explosion in Russia five years ago, although it did not reach the ground and exploded into the air, but caused material losses in the area of the explosion.
There is also the Tunguska eruption in 1908 near the Tunguska River in Podkamennaya, Russia, which occurred in an uninhabited area, and the cause of this explosion is still mysterious, and is one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century, and one of the hypotheses presented to explain this explosion was that it was caused by a mysterious comet or UFO that was located at an altitude of 10 kilometers from Earth.
And agrees with the previous opinion, Majed Abu Zahira, head of the Astronomical Society of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, who told Al-Ain News that “in recent decades, astronomers have understood the possibility that asteroids collide with Earth, and this is very real possibility, and therefore it is important for a planet of 7.6 billion. A human being needs to understand the potential threat of an asteroid, be tracked and discuss what we could do if an asteroid were on a collision course some years before that event “.
He explains that an automatic monitoring system has been established that always scans the most recent asteroid data for the possibility of future collisions with Earth within the next 100 years and, as part of NASA’s planetary defense strategy, the experiment of spacecraft collision (DART) with the asteroid (Demorphos) demonstrates a new technology that can be applied to protect our planet if an asteroid or comet is discovered on a confirmed collision course with Earth, which means that this experience is of real benefit to all humanity, as if science fiction becomes reality ”.
He added: “Any experiment that serves humanity and keeps our planet safe is worth the money, and the success of NASA’s experiment will provide an important addition to protecting our planet from any devastating asteroid collision, and this shows that we are no longer unable to prevent this type of natural disaster. ”
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