NASA aims to deflect near Earth Asteroid next month
You must have been listening to the news of the arrival of asteroids often towards Earth which could cause devastating damage. However, most of these asteroids are burnt to ashes in our atmosphere. However, in the coming time, humans might be prepared to deflect a potential planet killing asteroid. For this, the American space agency NASA has started the (Double Asteroid Redirection) DART program. Its purpose is to change the direction of the asteroid in space itself.
Test on 26 september
According to News Bytes, NASA launched the DART mission last year to remove or change the direction of such an asteroid. Now next month i.e. on 26th September it will be tested. Under this, NASA’s spacecraft is going to collide with the asteroid and change its direction. If this mission becomes successful then it can be used in future if needed.
Spacecraft will collide with this asteroid
According to the information, there is an asteroid named Didymos in space. Its diameter is about 780 meters. It is surrounded by a moon-like stone named Dimorphos, whose diameter is 160 meters. The American spacecraft will collide with Dimorphos and try to change its direction.
The mission was launched last year
NASA has said that Dimorphos orbits Didymos at a much slower rate than the orbit of the Sun. Didymos was discovered in 1996 by Joe Montani of the Spacewatch Project at the University of Arizona. At the same time, the DART mission was launched in November 2021.
There will be a collision at a speed of 24 thousand km per hour
NASA’s spacecraft will collide with this asteroid at a speed of about 24,000 kilometers per hour. The scientist hopes that after this collision, the asteroid can change its direction. This mission has been conducted by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) under the direction of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO).
The technology that will be used in this mission is being called Kinetic Impactor Technique. When NASA’s space plane collides with this asteroid, it will be studied with the telescope on Earth.
