NASA finally confirms: We succeeded in changing the orbit of the asteroid Demorphos
The asteroid "Demorphos" changed its orbit
The US space agency, NASA, said Tuesday that its test of a collision with an asteroid located millions of kilometers away, last month, succeeded in changing its orbit.
On September 26, a NASA spacecraft collided with the asteroid "Demorphos" in an unprecedented test aimed at teaching humanity how to prevent cosmic bodies from destroying life on Earth.
In a live broadcast, the cameras on the "Dart" (meaning "arrow") spacecraft transmitted stunning images of the asteroid, showing all the details of Demorphos, including its gray surface and small pebbles covering it.
Demorphos, about 160 meters in diameter, "presented no danger on Earth."
NASA named the mission "Double Asteroid Redirection Test", the first mission to "defend the planet" and the first test in outer space of this technology.
"This mission shows that NASA is trying to be prepared for whatever the universe throws at us," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday.
The spacecraft created a crater in the asteroid as a result of its collision, and the debris was blasted into space, leaving a comet-like trail of dust and debris stretching for several thousand miles.
It took days of telescope observations to determine how much the impact of the collision altered the asteroid's path around another, larger asteroid.
Before the collision, the moon took 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit the original asteroid. Scientists had hoped to shorten the time by 10 minutes, but a NASA official said that the impact shortened the asteroid's orbit by about 32 minutes.
The spacecraft, which was launched last year, crashed into the asteroid 11 million kilometers away, at a speed of 22,500 kilometers per hour.
Demorphos appears as an indistinct "bubble" in telescopes, according to the Washington Post, and the first time Earthquakes got a close look at it was before the impact.
The spacecraft was launched last November from California, and "NASA" targeted the small asteroid, guided by the light reflected from the larger asteroid.
Source: websites