NASA confirmed Tuesday that the DART spacecraft has had an impact on the planet’s surface. the asteroid DimorfosLocated about 11 million kilometers from Earth, its target was able to change its orbit, as it were.

Bill Nelson, director of the US space agency, noted that before it crashed, Dimorphos took 11 hours 55 minutes to orbit a larger asteroid called Didymos, which formed what is known as a double asteroid system.

The spacecraft was able to reduce this orbit by 32 minutes. “It would have been successful if it had only been shortened by 10 minutes, but it actually reduced it by 32 minutes and changed its orbit,” he said, congratulating himself on the outcome of this planetary defense mission, carried out in September.

Dimorphos’ orbit is now about 10 meters closer to Didymos, and the change in orbit is permanent.

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For the first time in human history, an attempt has been made to alter the orbit of a celestial body to protect Earth from asteroids similar to the one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

The DART impact, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirect Test, took place on September 26 and was broadcast live. This unmanned vehicle was the same size as a refrigerator or food vending machine and cost more than $330 million to build.

“Two weeks ago NASA made history again. We conducted humanity’s first planetary defense test and showed the world that NASA is a serious defender of this planet,” Nelson said while presenting the findings of this mission.

Dimorfos and Didymos

Dimorfos (Greek for “two forms”) is a 160-kilometer-wide moon-like object in space orbiting 780-metre-diameter Didymos, whose name means “twin” in Greek. They were chosen by NASA because they pose no threat to Earth.

NASA cautioned that this Tuesday’s results are only the “start” of all the information they hope this mission, designed to test existing technology, will provide them in the event of any celestial objects posing a direct danger. .

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The mission sought to deflect the asteroid in question, not destroy it. “It doesn’t break the asteroid into a million pieces, but it does push it a little bit,” Nancy Chabot, one of the lead researchers working on the DART spacecraft, said in mid-September.

Smashing the asteroid is not a good defensive strategy, as there would be many smaller objects instead of one large object heading towards the planet, as it was added today.

early diagnosis

The agency made clear on Tuesday that one of the key elements to successfully accomplishing similar tasks is early detection. “The more time we have for this little thrust, the better off we are,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division.

International cooperation is also important. “Planetary defense is not an issue only for the US or Italy cooperating on this mission. We should all participate and work.”

Calculations made this Tuesday have a margin of error of about two minutes. Astronomers will continue to examine the resulting Dimorphos images to get a rough estimate of its mass and shape.

In about four years, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera project plans to conduct detailed studies of both Dimorphos and Didymos, with a particular focus on the crater left by the DART collision, according to a statement. Dimorfos mass.

congratulations to the team @POT to successfully change the orbit of an asteroid. most #DARTTask It marks the first time humans have altered the motion of a celestial body in space, demonstrating a technology that could one day be used to protect the Earth. https://t.co/2X7Wcw3xYd

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) 11 October 2022

Live now: #DARTTask experts discuss the early consequences of the spacecraft’s planned impact with the world’s first asteroid Dimorphos #Planet Defense Scale.

Remember: DART is a test and there are no known asteroid threats to Earth. https://t.co/tnmJraBycM

— NASA (@NASA) 11 October 2022