The NASA spacecraft collided with Dimorphos , an asteroid 160 meters in diameter that accompanies Didymos , a larger rock.
NASA made history on Monday by crashing its DART spacecraft into Dimorphos , an asteroid 160 meters in diameter, to change its orbit in the first planetary defense mission of its kind.
The probe, which left Earth in December 2021 , crashed into the star and the US space agency is calculating the changes in its orbit thanks to its sister Didymos.
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
for the dinosaurs
Double Asteroid Redirection or DART crashed into Dimorphos at 6:14 pm Peru time.
NASA ‘s live feed showed the moments before the crash thanks to DRACO, the Didymos Optical Navigation and Reconnaissance Camera, as the target binary system is called.
Dimorphos is a 160-meter-diameter asteroid that functions as a moon for Didymos , a 760-meter rock. They were chosen because scientists know the orbital period and the behavior of Dimorphos , so that the change in its movement due to the impact can be recorded by all the telescopes that observed the historical event.
The impact speed of this event was 20,000 km/h.
Don’t want to miss a thing? Watch the final moments from the #DARTMission on its collision course with asteroid Dimporphos. pic.twitter.com/2qbVMnqQrD
— NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2022
a single date
It is the first time in history that a space agency has tested this type of planetary defense.
What is sought to prove is whether an impact of a ship of a certain weight and at a certain speed can change the orbit of an asteroid that threatens planet Earth. Neither Didymos nor Dimorphos represent a danger to humanity today.
At the moment, it is unknown how much Dimorphos ‘s trajectory changed after the impact of the 500-kilogram craft.
The Earth would only see the artificial meteor shower in a minimum of 15 to 30 days or even more than two years. Most of these bits of asteroid and DART would disintegrate upon entering the atmosphere.