NASA's ``Experiment to shift the orbit by hitting a spacecraft against an asteroid'' revealed that the orbit of the asteroid changed more than expected
by NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
It seems like a sci-fi movie or novel when you hear ``shifting the orbit of an asteroid or comet that is likely to collide with the earth'', but in fact NASA will launch a spacecraft on an asteroid in September 2022. We performed a mission called '
NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid's Motion in Space | NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-dart-mission-impact-changed-asteroid-s-motion-in-space
Smashing success: NASA asteroid strike results in big nudge | AP News
https://apnews.com/article/nasa-asteroid-strike-success-d2441c59fb10e3956c4e6bfaf7c0d017
Success! NASA Knocked an Asteroid Off Course (And Now It Has a Tail) : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/success-nasa-knocked-an-asteroid-off-course-and-now-it-has-a-tail
In the DART mission, the goal was to fly a refrigerator-sized unmanned spacecraft `` DART '' and collide with the satellite Dimorphos , which revolves around the near-Earth asteroid Didymos , with a diameter of about 170 m, and change the orbit. Although Didymos and Dimorphus orbit the Sun every 2.1 years, they are not considered to pose a threat to Earth.
On September 26, 2022 local time, DART collided with Dimorphos. At this time, the image of Dimorphos taken by DART just before the collision is also released.
NASA's ``Experiment to shift the orbit by hitting the spacecraft against the asteroid'' succeeded, and the image of the asteroid captured by the spacecraft just before the collision - GIGAZINE
NASA continued to collect and analyze data for two weeks after the collision, and announced on October 11 that 'DART succeeded in changing the orbit of Dimorphos.' Before the DART collision, Dimorphus orbited Didymos in 11 hours and 55 minutes, but after the collision, the distance between Dimorphus and Didymos was shortened by several tens of meters, shortening the orbiting time to 11 hours and 23 minutes, according to NASA. is reporting. ``Everyone, let's take a moment to soak in this moment... For the first time in history, humans have changed the orbit of an asteroid,'' said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.
At the beginning, the standard for determining a DART mission as 'successful' was 'changing the lap time by 73 seconds or more.' After the DART collision, NASA predicted that ``the orbit time may change by up to 10 minutes,'' but the actual observation results were much higher than expected.
Also, looking at the photo of Didymos and Dimorphus taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on October 8, you can see that the fragments of Dimorphus scattered by the DART collision look like a 'tail'. NASA scientists believe that the rock scattered into space by the collision also played a major role in changing the orbit of Dimorphus, and they are proceeding with analysis including the efficiency of momentum transfer by the DART collision. is.
by NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble
“We all have a responsibility to protect our home planet,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson . 'This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and for all of humanity, and demonstrates the commitment of our talented team at NASA and our partners around the world.'
In order to shift the orbit of a spacecraft by hitting an asteroid in order to protect the earth, it is necessary to detect a collision in advance, and the preparation period for spacecraft adjustment and launch is also important. Nevertheless, the fact that it is possible to hit a spacecraft on an asteroid and shift its orbit is hopeful when ``an asteroid that is likely to hit the earth'' is discovered in the future.
Daniel Brown, an astronomer at the University of Nottingham Trent in the UK, said in an email to The Associated Press: 'This is not only a first step towards protecting ourselves from future asteroid impacts. It's a big achievement in itself,' he said.
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