NASA Once Tried to Deflect an Asteroid with a Spacecraft and Here’s What Happened!

In 2022, NASA tested humanity’s ability to knock an asteroid off-course as part of the DART mission. And it didn’t go quite as expected.

Transcript

00:00There are over 30,000 space rocks hurtling through near-Earth space, according to the European Space Agency.

00:10And if we don't want to go the way of the dinos someday, we may have to take matters into our own hands.

00:16That was the general idea behind NASA's DART mission, which, after years of careful planning,

00:22tested humanity's ability to deflect an asteroid with a spacecraft in September of 2022.

00:28As Science Alert reports, the data is in and the results appear better than expected.

00:36According to research from Northern Arizona University, asteroid Dimorphis, target of the DART mission,

00:42was shifted from its 12-hour orbit of larger asteroid Didymus by a total of 33 minutes,

00:49a much larger change than NASA's projected seven-minute alteration to its orbit.

00:54Studying material ejected from the asteroid after impact,

00:58the Planetary Science Institute found that Dimorphis ejected twin tails of dust like a dry comet.

01:04A study by SETI found that the asteroid lost 0.3 to 0.5 percent of its total mass,

01:12based on the brightness of the light reflecting off its surface,

01:15with the ejected debris accounting for most of the change in its orbit transferring even more momentum than the collision itself,

01:22per John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

01:26The findings, which suggest the means to deflect asteroids are within humanity's grasp,

01:31were published across a series of five papers in the journal Nature.

01:35Thankfully, no known asteroids will endanger our planet for another 100 years.

01:40Hopefully by then, with enough reconnaissance, we'll be ready.

01:47So, that is clear.

01:56See you next week.