The American DART spacecraft, a year after its launch, collided with the small asteroid Dimorphos.
A NASA probe crashes into asteroid Dimorphos to change its orbit. The mission was named DART and became the world’s first project to change the trajectory of asteroids as part of developing a planetary defense mechanism. DART will help scientists understand how effective such a collision would be if some asteroid actually “aims” for Earth one day. Correspondent.net telling the details.
First planetary defense test mission
The American DART probe, weighing 550 kilograms, collided with the 160-meter asteroid Dimorph, which was the first test of planetary defense in practice. The broadcast from the project control center was conducted on YouTube.
DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) went into space in November and was created for the first practical test of one of the methods of protecting the Earth from potentially dangerous asteroids – controlled ramping.
Its essence lies in the fact that by pre-planned collision of an asteroid with a large device, you can change its trajectory, which will help our planet avoid a cataclysm.
As a test body, the asteroid Dimorphos was chosen, which is part of the binary system (65803) Didymos (diameter of about 780 meters), which orbits the Sun and approaches the Earth, but is not dangerous for it.
Didymos and Dimorphos in a DART/NASA image
On September 27, 2022, the probe crashed at a speed of 6.7 kilometers per second into Dimorphos. According to the plan, such a collision should create a crater with a diameter of about 20 meters and change the period of rotation of the asteroid around Didymos by several minutes.
Before impact, Dimorphos needed about 11 hours and 55 minutes to fly around Didymos. The collision is expected to change the orbital period to about 11 hours and 45 minutes.
NASA has published a video about the last ten minutes of DART’s life. The video is sped up ten times showing the process of the probe’s approach to the asteroid, down to the last frame received one second before the collision, according to NASA’s website.
During the rendezvous with the binary asteroid system, DART continuously images the Dimorph using DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera), keeping it in the center of the frame and correcting its trajectory based on the images.
All images in a compressed form are immediately sent to Earth, thanks to which a video of the approach of the probe to the asteroid is mounted. The last six frames are displayed at the same speed as they were sent to Earth.
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The last image, partially transmitted by DART to Earth, was taken from a distance of six kilometers from the surface of Dimorphos one second before the collision. It shows a section of the asteroid filled with large rocks, about 16 meters in size.
The most detailed image of the surface of asteroid Dimorphos / NASA
It will be possible to talk about the success of the project when observational data from ground-based and space telescopes for Didymos are analyzed, and the resulting impact crater should be photographed in the coming days of Italian cubesat LICIACube, launched into space with DART and separated from it a few days before the ram.
So far LICIACube has sent back an image of the asteroids minutes after the probe’s impact:
NASA
A European Space Agency (ESA) Hera mission is scheduled for 2024 to study the asteroid impact more closely. It will reach asteroids in 2027.
The Hera device itself is equipped with optical and infrared cameras, as well as a lidar (laser radar) to produce an accurate relief map of Didymos and Dimorphos.
In addition, like DART, Hera will be accompanied by cubesats with additional scientific instruments: Milani with a near-infrared spectrometer and dust probe instrument, and Juventas, which will be equipped with a ground-penetrating radar and, later some time, will try. to land on Dimorphos.
Dangers of asteroid collision with Earth
The Planetary Defense Coordination Office, whose purpose is to protect Earth from threats from space, was created by NASA in January 2016.
The department is responsible for overseeing all NASA projects aimed at finding and studying asteroids and comets passing near Earth’s orbit, as well as the intergovernmental coordination of responses to any potential threats to planet from space.
The PDCO conducts annual exercises designed to develop a clear and coherent mechanism of action in the event of such a risk. Since last year, the exercises have become truly global: within the framework of the World Conference on the Protection of the Planet, the United States is joined by ESA, Roscosmos and their partners from around the world.
On the eve of the launch, the deputy director of NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen, said that the risks for the Earth to collide with asteroids, known to scientists, are not observed in the next 100 years.
“Relax, this asteroid is not now and will not be a threat. None of the things we know today will be a threat in the next 100 years or so,” Zurbuchen said.
He noted that scientists currently know about 40 percent of objects larger than 140 square meters, and the remaining 60 percent have yet to be found. Overall, researchers have identified about 27,000 near-Earth asteroids.
A collision with a large celestial body could be a real disaster on a planetary scale for Earth.
Depending on the speed and size of the asteroid, it could destroy our planet, make it uninhabitable, or even cause waves of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other major disasters.
This happened 66 million years ago, when a similar collision led to the mass extinction of animals that lived on our planet during the Mesozoic era – including dinosaurs.
The crash frequency of the twin “dinosaur” asteroids
Right now, the main contender for a collision with Earth is the asteroid Bennu. It is called a “doomsday asteroid”. A few years ago, the interplanetary station OSIRIS-REx flew by him.
During its 2.5 years of operation, OSIRIS-REx mapped the asteroid, determined its properties, found that Bennu was active, found split boulders, fragments of asteroid Vesta and organic matter on its surface, and also followed the course of its evolution.
In addition, the device took soil from the northern hemisphere of the asteroid, the total mass of the collected material was 400 grams. The return capsule with asteroid soil is expected to land at the test site in Utah on September 24, 2023.
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Source: korrespondent
