NASA: The world’s first planetary defence test was successfully completed when NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided with an asteroid. The asteroid Dimorphos and DART successfully collided on September 27 at 4:44 IST. As DART neared the asteroid, photos of Dimorphos were taken by the DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for optical navigation) instrument on board the spacecraft. DRACO captured a photograph of the craggy surface of the football-sized asteroid Dimorphos just before it crashed.
Dimorphos, one of a pair of close-by asteroids in the Didymos system, posed little risk to Earth. Dimorphos was deflected by DART, demonstrating a first-of-its-kind planetary defence strategy. The world’s first mission to test technology for shielding Earth against asteroids and comets is currently underway.
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Overview of DART’s Target
The asteroid was orbiting Didymos, the other asteroid in the binary system, prior to DART’s collision with Dimorphos. Didymos is 487,446,221 kilometres away from Earth and has a diameter of about 780 metres. Dimorphos, which was smaller, had a diameter of roughly 160 metres. The goal of DART was this binary asteroid system called Didymos.
Dimorphos did not represent a threat to Earth, but NASA’s capacity to create a kinetic impact on an asteroid and monitor its reaction was tested by having DART collide with it in order to alter the asteroid’s speed and course.
Dimorphos was chosen by NASA as the test target to see whether the deliberate collision of a spacecraft with an asteroid may change its speed and direction because it posed no threat to Earth.
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What’s coming up next?
The DART Investigation Team will examine the outcomes of DART’s kinetic impact with Dimorphos. To determine how much the impact of the spacecraft altered the asteroid’s orbital speed, the scientists will use telescopes on Earth.
DART was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on November 24 at 1:20 a.m. EST (November 24 at 10:50 a.m. IST).
If the DART mission is successful, it will likely provide crucial information to aid Earth in better preparing for an asteroid that could endanger the planet in the future.
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