NASA crashed a plane into an asteroid, did it manage to save the Earth?

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The United States Space Agency (NASA) has confirmed that the asteroid impact mission, also known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), was successful. The orbit of the mission’s target, the asteroid Dimorphos, has successfully changed.

Prior to the DART mission, Dimorphos orbited its parent asteroid Didymos for 11 hours and 55 minutes. After the crash in late September, its orbit changed for 32 minutes and became 11 hours and 23 minutes. NASA notes that this measurement has a margin of uncertainty of plus or minus 2 minutes.

“This achievement is an important step in understanding the full effect of a DART impact on its target asteroid,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Division of Planetary Sciences.

“As new data arrives every day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether and how missions like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from collisions with asteroids if we ever find them headed our way.”

At 7:14 pm EDT on September 26, 2022, mission control of the Johns Hopkins Laboratory of Applied Physics (APL) in Laurel, Maryland announced the success of the mission.

For information, Dimorphos has a diameter of 530 feet or 160 meters, orbiting the asteroid Didymos with a dimension greater than 2,560 feet (780 meters).

Meanwhile, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said everyone has a responsibility to protect the Earth. The DART mission, he said, showed NASA was trying to prepare for any threat from space.

“NASA is proving that we are serious as defenders of the planet. This is an important time to defend the planet and all of humanity, demonstrating the commitment of the incredible NASA team and partners around the world.”

For the moment the focus is on measuring the momentum transfer efficiency of a DART collision, which is approximately 22,530 kilometers per hour with its target. This includes further analysis of the “electa” – the tons of asteroid rock that were placed and thrown into space by the impact.

“The DART team is continuing to work on this rich dataset to fully understand the early planetary defenses from asteroid deflection,” said Nancy Chabot, DART coordinator of applied physics at the Johns Hopkins Laboratory.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]