Anyone who has ever seen Deep Impact or Armageddon, knows that asteroids or comets could take out all of life on Earth as we know it. Or at least according to those movies. NASA has been working on a plan to prevent an asteroid from destroying humanity.
The DART aka Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission from NASA to push Asteroids away from Earth. “NASA is using the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) with support from several NASA centers: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Johnson Space Center (JSC), Glenn Research Center (GRC), and Langley Research Center (LaRC). ” (NASA)
The DART used a kinetic impactor technique to adjust the direction and trajectory of an Asteroid. The DART will ram itself into moonlet at a speed of approximately 6.6 km/s. The collision will change the speed of the asteroid slightly but will change the trajectory.
he kinetic impact deflection by deliberately crashing itself into the moonlet at a speed of approximately 6.6 km/s, with the aid of an onboard camera (named DRACO) and sophisticated autonomous navigation software. The collision will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of one percent, but this will change the orbital period of the moonlet by several minutes – enough to be observed and measured using telescopes on Earth.
It is very KOOL that NASA is working a way to protect us from Earth Killer Asteroids. I don’t know I would have thought crashing into it as the best option.
(Via NASA)
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