NASA sends spacecraft to asteroid Dimorphos

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Major success for US space agency NASA: On Tuesday, as part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a probe deliberately collided with an asteroid to deflect it from its course. As planned, the probe hit the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos (pictured above) at 1:16 a.m. CEST.

The DART probe was launched in November using a “Falcon 9” rocket from California on its roughly ten-month journey to its destination. But it was only about an hour and a half before the impact that the probe could really target Dimorphos with its camera. The probe’s approach was live streamed until impact.

According to NASA researchers, this is a first tentative attempt to see if it is possible to change the orbit of an asteroid in this way. The mission is hoped to provide insight into how to protect Earth from approaching asteroids. No less than “the future security of the earth is at stake”, it was said beforehand.

Impact designed to change the track
After the impact, Dimorphos’s orbit of about 12 hours is expected to be at least 73 seconds shorter and possibly up to 10 minutes shorter. For the scientists, however, the work has only just begun: With telescopes around the world, they are observing and analyzing exactly what happened before, during and after the impact – and what that could mean for Earth’s protection. In 2024, the ESA mission “Hera” should start for even more detailed research.

Didymos is close enough to observe and measure all this with scientific instruments from Earth and space. The asteroid currently poses no threat to Earth, according to calculations by NASA researchers — and the mission is designed so that the asteroid shouldn’t pose a threat even after the probe hits it. ESA’s Hera mission is scheduled for launch in 2024 to further study the effects of the impact.

Both asteroids pose no threat to Earth
Dimorphos, about 160 meters in diameter, is a kind of moon of the larger asteroid Didymos. The mission is designed so that both asteroids pose no threat to our planet, even after the impact of the probe, which had only one camera on board.

Source: Krone

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