Nasa says spaceship successfully deflected asteroid in test to save Earth
- The Dart mission managed to push space rock Dimorphos onto a new path, turning science fiction into reality
- Kinetic impact with a spaceship is just one way to defend the planet from a killer asteroid, but is the only method possible with current technology
Nasa on Tuesday said it had succeeded in deflecting an asteroid in a historic test of humanity’s ability to stop an incoming cosmic object from devastating life on Earth.
The fridge-sized Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) impactor deliberately smashed into the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, pushing it into a smaller, faster orbit around its big brother Didymos, said Nasa chief Bill Nelson.
“Dart shortened the 11 hour 55 minute orbit to 11 hours and 23 minutes,” he said. Speeding up Dimorphos’ orbital period by 32 minutes exceeded Nasa’s own expectation of 10 minutes.
“We showed the world that Nasa is serious as a defender of this planet,” Nelson added.
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First images of Nasa’s ‘planetary defence’ test as Dart rams into asteroid Dimorphos
The asteroid pair loop together around our sun every 2.1 years, and pose no threat to our planet. But they are ideal for studying the “kinetic impact” method of planetary defence, in case an actual approaching object is ever detected.