Asteroid pieces from NASA’s deflection test could hit Earth
A study says debris from an asteroid that NASA deflected could hit Earth within the next decade, Dailymail reported.
Researchers tracked 3 million debris particles from NASA’s 2022 DART mission
Researchers ran simulations tracking 3 million debris particles from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. In 2022, this mission involved crashing a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos.
NASA launched DART as a test to see if we could deflect an asteroid that might threaten Earth in the future.
If these meteors reach Earth, they won’t be a threat. Due to their small size and high speed, they’ll burn up in the atmosphere, creating “a beautiful luminous streak in the sky,” says Eloy Peña-Asensio. He is a research fellow at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and the study’s lead author.
The study is available online as a pre-print. That means it hasn’t yet been reviewed by other scientists. But has been accepted for publication by The Planetary Science Journal.
DART was launched in California in November 2021. And completed its 10-month journey by crashing into the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022.
Dimorphos, about 560 feet wide, orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos. Both are roughly 6.8 million miles from Earth.
DART collided with the space rock at over 14,000 miles per hour and was destroyed on impact. Dimorphos received a “small nudge” aimed at slightly changing its path.
The mission showed that hitting an asteroid with a spacecraft is an effective method for altering an asteroid’s trajectory.
NASA’s technique for deflecting hazardous asteroids under review
If a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) were ever headed toward Earth, NASA might use this technique to protect our planet. Scientists are still examining the results of DART’s impact to ensure the method is safe and effective.
To understand where the debris from DART’s collision with Dimorphos might end up, an international team of researchers analyzed data from the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube). This spacecraft, equipped with cameras, accompanied DART and documented the impact test.
The simulations suggest that it could take up to 30 years before any of this debris is observed on Earth.
“These faster particles are expected to be too small to produce visible meteors, based on early observations,” Peña-Asensio, told Universe Today.
“Nevertheless, ongoing meteor observation campaigns will be critical in determining whether DART has created a new (and human-created) meteor shower: the Dimorphids.”
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