A spacecraft launched by NASA hit its target and nudged an asteroid off its orbit in a test of a system designed to defend the planet from “whatever the universe throws at us,’ the agency reported Tuesday.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) hit an asteroid called Dimorphos that was orbiting around a larger asteroid called Didymos.
The collision, which took place two weeks ago, knocked Dimorphos off its orbit, shortening the time it takes the rock to orbit Didymos by 32 minutes.
“Let’s all just kind of take a moment to soak this in ... for the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit” of a celestial body, said Lori Glaze, NASA’s director of planetary science.
Being able to change the orbit of an asteroid could keep one from hitting the Earth, saving it from catastrophic damage or destruction.
According to NASA scientists, planetary defense experts prefer altering the orbit of a threatening asteroid or comet rather than blowing it up and creating more pieces that could hit Earth.
Also, by moving the asteroid off its course, it gives NASA decades of lead time to watch the asteroid and take other action if necessary.
“We really need to also have that warning time for a technique like this to be effective,” said mission leader Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the spacecraft and managed the $325 million mission.
The team’s scientists said the amount of debris left by the collision with the spacecraft apparently played a role in the outcome, The Associated Press reported.
NASA program scientist Tom Statler said at the news conference that while Dimorphos wobbled a bit after the impact, the asteroid will never go back to its original location.
“This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a briefing at the space agency’s headquarters in Washington.
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