NASA DART Mission's Success Paves The Way For Advanced Planetary Defense

Photo Credit: NASA

NASA recently crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid as part of a mission that will define the course of its planetary defense system. The mission was successful in altering the asteroid’s orbit, pushing it closer to its companion space rock. The mission’s success is a huge milestone for the space agency and its ambition to develop a robust planetary defense system that can save Earth from civilization-ending asteroid strikes.

Telescopes on Earth and space set their crosshairs on the space rock Dimorphos when NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission sent a spacecraft to smash into it. Now, initial data from these observations suggest that the mission was a success.

Altering The Orbit Of The Asteroid

Before the DART spacecraft crash, the asteroid Dimorphos took around 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit a larger companion asteroid dubbed Didymos. However, after the impact, the orbit time has been reduced to 11 hours and 23 minutes. Altering the orbit time is a huge achievement for the mission.

Scientists believe the reason behind the change in orbit is that the collision displaced tons of material. The collision also left behind a dramatic-looking comet-like tail of debris that was 10,000km long.

The Mission Isn’t Over Yet

While the collision was successful, it will still take astronomers some time to figure out everything about the impact. There are still several questions floating around the shape and orbit of the asteroid, or whether the asteroid is wobbling.

Once scientists have all the information, they will run it through physics models over and over until they are sure of everything that has happened after the impact. This will allow the researchers to prepare well for the mission with European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft at the helm. The spacecraft is expected to visit the asteroid in a few years.

Paving The Way For Future Planetary Defense Missions

The information extracted from the DART mission will provide key data for any future planetary defense missions. While the Dimorphos asteroid wasn’t a threat to our planet, astronomers have been constantly searching for potentially hazardous space rocks.

While the DART mission results are exciting, altering the orbit of an asteroid might just be the tip of the iceberg. The bigger aim is to know what hazards lie out there and prepare for them as soon as possible. A small course correction might be enough to keep a hazardous space rock away from Earth, but the timing of the collision should be spot on.