mystery Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid’s Motion in Space Analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team shows the spacecraft's kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit. This marks humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology. Prior to DART’s impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. Since DART’s intentional collision with Dimorphos on Sept. 26, astronomers have been using telescopes on Earth to measure how much that time has changed. Now, the investigation team has confirmed the spacecraft’s impact altered Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, shortening the 11 hour and 55-minute orbit to 11 hours and 23 minutes. This measurement has a margin of uncertainty of approximately plus or minus 2 minutes. Before its encounter, NASA had defined a minimum successful orbit period change of Dimorphos as change of 73 seconds or more. This early data show DART surpassed this minimum benchmark by more than 25 times. “This result is one important step toward understanding the full effect of DART’s impact with its target asteroid” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “As new data come in each day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether, and how, a mission like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from a collision with an asteroid if we ever discover one headed our way.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
305 Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 Amazing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karla Cabello Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magazine Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 Oh, that's it? Okay. Good for her, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FightForTanas Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 And here I thought the asteroid would hit any day and end our misery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TROJAN Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 Those asteroids won’t be ******* with us anytime soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gatito Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 ariana's don't look up inspired Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaynsus Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodflowers. Posted October 12, 2022 Share Posted October 12, 2022 We are so advanced in our technology yet so far behind from serious business at the same time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Protocol Posted October 12, 2022 Share Posted October 12, 2022 'Deep Impact' its impact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop Art Posted October 12, 2022 Share Posted October 12, 2022 10 hours ago, Bloodflowers. said: We are so advanced in our technology yet so far behind from serious business at the same time I was thinking about the same thing earlier. Sometimes it feels like we're pretty advanced and yet to hear them say "this marks humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object" is kinda shocking. Like...it doesn't feel like it should be a big deal but it is because we finally JUST did that for the first time now. I feel like advancement in space technology/infrastructure/etcetera has slowed down significantly since the 20th century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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