First every planetary defense system like in a movie [ NASA ]

First, ever planetary defense system like in a movie [ NASA ] Tonight Nasa made history on 27.09.2022 Tue, by sending a satellite on a collision course with an asteroid in order to deflect it from its course.

In this experiment, they were able to deflect the asteroid for the future to come, when a such rock will be targeted earth in order to deflect it from its course and away from stopping extinguishing the human race

The asteroid that the spacecraft collided with as part of the exercise would not clash with the Earth. Still, the practice’s success will be highly significant for NASA and will mean that the American space agency will have a tool to deal with the threat of an asteroid hitting the Earth. The spacecraft, worth 308 million dollars and the size of a golf cart, has traveled more than 10 million kilometers from the Earth until it collided with the asteroid “Dimorphos” at a speed of 23 thousand km/h, and now it is out of use.

“We’re moving an asteroid. We’re changing the motion of a natural celestial body in space. Humanity has never done this before,” NASA scientist Tom Statler said Thursday, and now it’s real.”

If everything goes according to plan, the collision of the spacecraft with “Dimorphos” will slightly change its trajectory. The diameter of “Dimorphos” is about 160 meters, and it orbits a giant asteroid 800 meters in diameter. The asteroid was chosen because it is expected to change shape after the spacecraft collision. Scientists expect the crash to change Dimorphus’ speed by 1%.

The Dimorphos asteroid system poses no threat to Earth, making it the perfect target to test collision-path diversion capabilities. NASA knows the location and orbit of approximately 28,000 asteroids in the Earth’s vicinity, and there is not a single asteroid that poses an immediate threat to humanity. But experts believe this will likely happen sometime in the future, so the current mission is critical.