About NASA DART which he worked on for 5 years project successfully completed the first test yesterday. However, there is one point; The asteroid Dimorphos targeted by DART, 160 meters he had an anchor. So looking at the thousands of giant meteors circling the sky, Dimorphos is a small task.

Although it seems impossible for us to hit our planet with a meteor as big as we mentioned, there are numerous studies on this. Thousands of meteorites are known to fall on the Earth’s surface every year. For this reason, having a defense mechanism means that an approaching meteorite to change his trajectory quite important.

There are several meteorites that are likely to hit Earth.

Among them, one of the largest known asteroids: Bennu. About An anchor of 525 meters Bennu is expected to be closest to Earth by the end of the 2100s. If our planet’s gravity affects the asteroid’s orbit, Bennu could collide with Earth.

According to the latest studies, the probability of realization of what we describe lies between 2100 and 2200 years. 1 in 2700the chances of it happening in the 2300s 1 in 1750 considered to be. Although it seems like a small possibility to us, the scientific world takes this matter very seriously.

If Bennu crashes to Earth…

In such a case, we would not see an effect like a meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs. The main reason for this is; Bennu is not as big as the famous Chicxulub meteorite. But of course will have no effect does not mean.

In the event of a possible collision More than 1.1 billion tons of TNT an explosion-like effect can be seen. This can cause major destruction locally. So too many buildings can be destroyed, animals and people can be damaged. Many may even die.

What had Chicxulub, known as the ‘meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs’, done to the Earth?

What killed the dinosaurs was not that they were crushed by the huge meteorite that fell on their heads. Many may have died that way as well, but the meteor caused bigger problems. For example; the sea suddenly retreated come back with huge tsunamis as. But that wasn’t the biggest problem either.

The biggest cause of dinosaur death, according to research Most of the meteorite consisted of sulfur. Indeed, after Chicxulub crashed to Earth, it caused a massive explosion of sulfur gas. As a result of the gas mixing in the air, it is estimated that the air temperature drops to the freezing point. At the same time, it is believed that acid rains are observed after the gases released by the meteor. This is how dinosaurs went extinct, according to scientists.

What would happen if a similar meteor hit Earth today?

About the Chicxulub . meteorite 10-15 km in diameter is believed to be. In other words, it had a size close to Mount Everest, which is about 9 km high. When a similar meteor first hits Earth, most of it will shatter, creating a massive crater. However, there are a few important points here. Like what material the meteorite is made of. Because once it hits the earth and falls apart, all the minerals in it will come out and it will be inevitable to mix in the air. This can of course be a bit weaker in addition to the other effects.

Even if it contains no harmful minerals, a dust cloud will fall on an area several kilometers in size, both with the impact of the impact and with the meteorite breaking up. However, the meteor begins to burn and disintegrate as it enters the atmosphere before falling to Earth. So all these disaster scenarios start before the meteor falls to Earth. Burning particles are blown around, large fires that are difficult to prevent while causing The impact of the impact is also very likely with large tsunamis, acid rains and sudden temperature changes. Although the location of the meteorite is extremely important, even with current technology, after such an explosion It is very difficult for us to survive.

A meteorite 500 km in diameter could change things even more.

According to a video shared by Discovery Channel in 2008 Meteorite with a diameter of 500 km It can cause fires that can destroy the entire planet. By the way, when the meteorite enters the atmosphere, it will also burn up in small pieces.

These small pieces of meteorite, which can be considered small, rained on the earth. set our planet on fire. Even if we escape the fire, it will be nearly impossible for us to survive for long.

So, can we change the trajectory of a huge meteorite, like in NASA’s DART project?

The asteroid Dimorphos targeted by the DART project was a fairly small mission. In statements made about this, NASA announced that they don’t have enough technology for the time being to change the orbit of a larger asteroid. However The success of DART for the development of this technology and to stop asteroids that can wreak havoc on the Earth. first step considered to be.

When NASA’s spacecraft DART, nearly the size of a refrigerator, points at such an asteroid, it will create a fly-like effect on our bodies. To stop a meteor like Chicxulub that wiped out the dinosaurs up to at least 56 DARTs we need. But even if this is done, the massive asteroid may not come out of orbit. The electricity and power resources needed for more effective results and to destroy larger meteorites are also quite high. For now, no scientist can fully predict whether even bigger and more DARTs would be able to block such an asteroid.

As the studies and investigations continued on the subject, the success of NASA’s mission was a hope that many of us would not see the scenarios we are used to from science fiction movies. What would you do if a huge meteor was approaching our planet and you could do one last thing?

Sources: National Geographic, Science Focus, NASA, Mint, How things work

Image Sources: WallHere

Details on NASA’s DART mission can be found here:

You can see what the meteorite is here: