NASA spacecraft hits an asteroid in an attempt to change the trajectory of the celestial body

A NASA spacecraft purposely collided on Monday night (26) with an asteroid called Dimorphos. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, mission had been traveling to reach its target since its launch in November 2021.

This Monday, Dart hit the celestial body at about 21,600 kilometers per hour in an attempt to change its trajectory.

Although the asteroid in question was not a threat to Earth, NASA explained that the mission’s objective was to test a technology that could be used in the future to defend the planet against possible risks.

Collision

Because it is about 100 times smaller than Dimorphos, the spacecraft did not destroy the asteroid.

Instead, the agency hopes the collision achieved its goal of altering the speed and path of the celestial body in space.

The mission team compared the action to “a golf cart hitting one of the Great Pyramids of Egypt” – enough energy to leave an impact crater.

Scientists expect the push will slightly change Dimorphos and make it more gravitationally bound to Didymos, the largest asteroid in the system.

Next steps

Ground-based observatories around the world will observe the asteroid system as a way of confirming whether DART has successfully altered the asteroid’s motion.

The James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Lucy mission will also look at the aftermath.

In addition, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission will launch in 2024 to continue studying the mission’s impact.

Check the moment of the collision:

IMPACT SUCCESS! watch from #DARTMIssion‘s DRACO Camera, as the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collides with asteroid Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth. pic.twitter.com/7bXipPkjWD

— NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2022