NASA may not need to recruit oil drillers in the event of an Armageddon-style asteroid after all. The agency just crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid seven million miles from Earth, to test whether it’s a viable option to knock one off course. DART launched back in November using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and impacted the asteroid Dimorphos at 14,000 miles per hour. The camera onboard tracked the asteroid from a tiny speck into a specific target. It took some great detailed images as it hurtled into Dimorphos and then stopped transmitting.
More images will come via a probe deployed from DART a week in advance of the collision that was following along. Its two optical cameras, LUKE and LEIA, will share photos of the impact, crater, and asteroids within the next few days. Likewise, scientists here on Earth will monitor the asteroid’s orbit to see if it changes.
Dimorphos is only 530 feet long and orbits another asteroid called Didymos, which is 2,560 feet long, or about half a mile. In comparison, DART was only 62 feet with its solar panels unfurled. The asteroids are not headed for Earth. They are just out there minding their own business. But NASA decided to bonk into Dimorphos anyway to see what happens. The technical term is a “kinetic impact.” The people who approved funding for this mission have either seen too many disaster movies or, you know, heard what happened to the dinosaurs.
In case you’re wondering why computer simulations aren’t taking care of this kind of planetary defense, fear not—they are. But you have to field test it at least once to see if your simulation is accurate. That’s essentially the plan here. The team on the International Space Station demonstrated how kinetic impacts affect bodies in space by tossing boxes at a floating astronaut standing in for the asteroid.
The DART spacecraft cost hundred of millions of dollars. It had aboard only a few instruments, enough to guide it to its target. The camera system is DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation). How’s that for an acronym? It took some cool pictures along the way, including of Vega as well as Jupiter and some of its moons.
Of all the ways life on Earth could get snuffed out, asteroid impacts are one of the scarier scenarios. Though the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was about 100 times larger than Dimorphos, even small collisions can have disastrous results. That’s why NASA’s planetary defense project performed this test. Here’s hoping we’re bucking that sci-fi trend where every disaster movie starts with people ignoring a scientist.
Featured Image: NASA
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
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