Watch: NASA spacecraft slams into asteroid in defense test
A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.
The galactic grand slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 7 million miles away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the small space rock at 14,000 mph. Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, alter the asteroid바카라 게임 웹사이트s orbit.
Watch the video above to see the spacecraft's collision with the asteroid.
Telescopes around the world and in space aimed at the same point in the sky to capture the spectacle. Though the impact was immediately obvious 바카라 게임 웹사이트 Dart바카라 게임 웹사이트s radio signal abruptly ceased 바카라 게임 웹사이트 it will be days or even weeks to determine how much the asteroid바카라 게임 웹사이트s path was changed.
was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or any other natural object in space.
바카라 게임 웹사이트No, this is not a movie plot,바카라 게임 웹사이트 NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted earlier in the day. 바카라 게임 웹사이트We바카라 게임 웹사이트ve all seen it on movies like 바카라 게임 웹사이트Armageddon,바카라 게임 웹사이트 but the real-life stakes are high,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said in a prerecorded video.
Monday바카라 게임 웹사이트s target: a 525-foot asteroid named Dimorphos. It바카라 게임 웹사이트s actually a moonlet of Didymos, Greek for twin, a fast-spinning asteroid five times bigger that flung off the material that formed the junior partner.
The pair have been orbiting the sun for eons without threatening Earth, making them ideal save-the-world test candidates.
Launched last November, the vending machine-size Dart 바카라 게임 웹사이트 short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test 바카라 게임 웹사이트 navigated to its target using new technology developed by Johns Hopkins University바카라 게임 웹사이트s Applied Physics Laboratory, the spacecraft builder and mission manager.
Dart바카라 게임 웹사이트s on-board camera, a key part of this smart navigation system, caught sight of Dimorphos barely an hour before impact.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Woo hoo,바카라 게임 웹사이트 exclaimed Johns Hopkins mission systems engineer Elena Adams. "We바카라 게임 웹사이트re seeing Dimorphos, so wonderful, wonderful.바카라 게임 웹사이트
With an image beaming back to Earth every second, Adams and other ground controllers in Laurel, Maryland, watched with growing excitement as Dimorphos loomed larger and larger in the field of view alongside its bigger companion.
A mini satellite followed a few minutes behind to take photos of the impact. The Italian Cubesat was released from Dart two weeks ago.
Scientists insisted Dart would not shatter Dimorphos. The spacecraft packed a scant 1,260 pounds, compared with the asteroid바카라 게임 웹사이트s 11 billion pounds. But that should be plenty to shrink its 11-hour, 55-minute orbit around Didymos.
The impact should pare 10 minutes off that, but telescopes will need anywhere from a few days to nearly a month to verify the new orbit. The anticipated orbital shift of 1% might not sound like much, scientists noted. But they stressed it would amount to a significant change over years.
Planetary defense experts prefer nudging a threatening asteroid or comet out of the way, given enough lead time, rather than blowing it up and creating multiple pieces that could rain down on Earth. Multiple impactors might be needed for big space rocks or a combination of impactors and so-called gravity tractors, not-yet-invented devices that would use their own gravity to pull an asteroid into a safer orbit.
바카라 게임 웹사이트The dinosaurs didn바카라 게임 웹사이트t have a space program to help them know what was coming, but we do,바카라 게임 웹사이트 NASA바카라 게임 웹사이트s senior climate adviser Katherine Calvin said, referring to the mass extinction 66 million years ago believed to have been caused by a major asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions or both.
The non-profit B612 Foundation, dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid strikes, has been pushing for impact tests like Dart since its founding by astronauts and physicists 20 years ago. Monday바카라 게임 웹사이트s feat aside, the world must do a better job of identifying the countless space rocks lurking out there, warned the foundation바카라 게임 웹사이트s executive director, Ed Lu, a former astronaut.
Significantly less than half of the estimated 25,000 near-Earth objects in the deadly 460-foot range have been discovered, according to NASA. And fewer than 1% of the millions of smaller asteroids, capable of widespread injuries, are known.
The Vera Rubin Observatory, nearing completion in Chile by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Energy Department, promises to revolutionize the field of asteroid discovery, Lu noted.
Finding and tracking asteroids, 바카라 게임 웹사이트That바카라 게임 웹사이트s still the name of the game here. That바카라 게임 웹사이트s the thing that has to happen in order to protect the Earth,바카라 게임 웹사이트 he said.
