NASA’s DART Mission : In News
NASA’s DART mission made history by successfully crashing a spacecraft into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos.
- This marked a major step forward in protecting Earth from possible asteroid impacts by testing ways to change the direction of threatening space objects.
- Dimorphids is the First Human-Made Meteor Shower
- As a result of the DART mission’s impact, debris from Dimorphos has been scattered into space.
- Scientists believe that more than 2 million pounds of this material could eventually reach Earth and Mars.
- If this happens, it could create a meteor shower, known as the “Dimorphids,” in the next 10 to 30 years, leading to periodic meteor displays.
NASA’s DART Mission :
- The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was launched in 2021 as NASA’s first attempt to move an asteroid from its path.
- The idea behind the mission was to see if a spacecraft could deflect an asteroid by crashing into it—this technique is called “kinetic impact.”
- DART’s goal was to show that this method could be used to protect Earth from potential asteroid threats in the future.
- The DART mission was a success.
- The spacecraft hit Dimorphos and managed to shorten its orbit around the larger asteroid Didymos by 33 minutes.
- This was a major victory, as it proved that using a spacecraft to change an asteroid’s path is possible.
- It is the first time humans have intentionally changed the movement of a celestial body.
