Posted on 09/27/2022 1:13:52 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Could humanity deflect an asteroid headed for Earth? Yes. Deadly impacts from large asteroids have happened before in Earth's past, sometimes causing mass extinctions of life. To help protect our Earth from some potential future impacts, NASA tested a new planetary defense mechanism yesterday by crashing the robotic Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into Dimorphos, a small asteroid spanning about 170-meters across. As shown in the featured video, the impact was a success. Ideally, if impacted early enough, even the kick from a small spacecraft can deflect a large asteroid enough to miss the Earth. In the video, DART is seen in a time-lapse video first passing larger Didymos, on the left, and then approaching the smaller Dimorphos. Although the video ends abruptly with DART's crash, observations monitoring the changed orbit of Dimorphos -- from spacecraft and telescopes around the world -- have just begun.
“Ideally, if impacted early enough, even the kick from a small spacecraft can deflect a large asteroid enough to miss the Earth.”
Even if we can’t impact it early enough, with a later impact we may still be able to deflect a large asteroid enough to make it strike China.
GMTA
Or Bidet’s scoop of rocky road.
I think I heard tonight that it will be many weeks before we know - maybe a couple of months.
We should have been experimenting with this a long time ago.
Did DART move the asteroid? Results explored as NASA defense test is carried out
I couldn’t read through all of it; but impact seems to have been successful.
Whether it changed the path of the object is the important thing.
Yeah and apparently they aren’t going to say anything for weeks.
I just want to know that it didn’t fragment into a hundred pieces like blowing up a beached whale.
I’m not sure they CAN say anything for weeks.
And if it ‘fragmented’, I think it was far enough away that it won’t bother any sentient being...that we know of :-)
The asteroid direction has now been changed and is heading for Earth!
All of it...................😉
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