CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering velocity Monday in an unprecedented costume rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.
The galactic grand slam occurred at a innocent asteroid 7 million miles away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the small house rock at 14,000 mph. Scientists anticipated the impression to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and grime into house and, most significantly, alter the asteroid’s orbit.
Telescopes world wide and in house aimed on the identical level within the sky to seize the spectacle. Though the impression was instantly apparent — Dart’s radio sign abruptly ceased — will probably be days and even weeks to find out how a lot the asteroid’s path was modified.
The $325 million mission was the primary try and shift the place of an asteroid or some other pure object in house.
“No, this is not a movie plot,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted earlier within the day. “We’ve all seen it on movies like ‘Armageddon,’ but the real-life stakes are high,” he mentioned in a prerecorded video.
Monday’s goal: a 525-foot (160-meter) asteroid named Dimorphos. It’s truly a moonlet of Didymos, Greek for twin, a fast-spinning asteroid 5 occasions greater that flung off the fabric that shaped the junior associate.
The pair have been orbiting the solar for eons with out threatening Earth, making them preferrred save-the-world take a look at candidates.
Launched final November, the merchandising machine-size Dart — quick for Double Asteroid Redirection Test — navigated to its goal utilizing new expertise developed by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, the spacecraft builder and mission supervisor.
Dart’s on-board digital camera, a key a part of this sensible navigation system, caught sight of Dimorphos barely an hour earlier than impression.
“Woo hoo,” exclaimed Johns Hopkins mission methods engineer Elena Adams. “We’re seeing Dimorphos, so wonderful, wonderful.”
With a picture beaming again to Earth each second, Adams and different floor controllers in Laurel, Md., watched with rising pleasure as Dimorphos loomed bigger and bigger within the subject of view alongside its greater companion.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”