The deliberate 14,000-mph crash of a small NASA probe into the asteroid Dimorphos two weeks ago nudged the 525-foot-wide body onto a slightly different course, NASA confirmed Tuesday.
into the asteroid Dimorphos two weeks ago nudged the 525-foot-wide body onto a slightly different course, NASA confirmed Tuesday — shaving 32 minutes off the time needed to complete one orbit around a parent asteroid known as Didymos., impact and now-confirmed course change demonstrated in spectacular fashion the viability of at least one technique for pushing a threatening asteroid or comet off course before it might slam into Earth with potentially devastating results.
Nelson said the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, test showed that if"an Earth-threatening asteroid was discovered, and we could see it far enough away, this technique could be used to deflect it." For the past two weeks, optical telescopes on Earth and in space, along with two radar observatories, have been monitoring the asteroid pair on a near hourly bases, carefully tracking Dimorphos.
But timing is everything, she said. The farther out a threatening body is detected, and the farther from Earth it is when an impactor reaches it, the less force is required to nudge it off course.
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