It’s the first time NASA has been able to deflect an asteroid as a planetary defense test. The investigation will serve in case of danger for the Earth.
NASA has officially announced that the collision of the DART spacecraft with the asteroid Dimorphos managed to successfully change its trajectory in humanity’s first planetary defense mission.
Through a press release, the official agency confirmed that the impact achieved a change of 32 minutes in the regular orbit of the star.
CONFIRMED: Analysis of data obtained over the past 2 weeks by the #DARTMission team shows impact with Dimorphos has successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit by 32 minutes – marking the 1st time humans have changed the orbit of a celestial object in space! https://t.co/MjmUAFwVSO pic.twitter.com/4Qiy1mC4gK
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) October 11, 2022
You saved us, we are greatful
Before impact, Dimorphos took 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit a larger asteroid called Didymos .
Since scientists already knew this value, they chose it for the impact test, the first of its kind.
After the event, Dimorphos completed its orbit in 11 hours and 23 minutes. The 32 changing minutes was higher than the 10 minutes previously projected by the space agency.
Neither Dimorphos nor Didymos pose a threat to Earth. The impact speed of this event was 20,000 km/h.
prepared for an emergency
Now, with the results, NASA will be able to devise potential strategies in the event that an asteroid does indeed threaten humanity.
“This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the Universe throws at us,” said agency administrator Bill Nelson.
“I think the agency has shown that we are serious as defenders of the planet,” he told reporters.