NASA spacecraft hits asteroid for first time

NASA spacecraft hits asteroid for first time: Earth-saving megatest succeeds, tries to change path of 5 billion kilogram asteroid

Question 1: What happened in space today?

Answer: American space agency NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft collided with asteroid Dimorphus in space. The collision took place on September 26 at 7.14 pm US time. It was 4.44 am on September 27 in India.

NASA's 42-foot, 570-kilogram Dart spacecraft collided with the 2,560-foot, 5 billion-kilogram asteroid Dimorphus. The collision took place at a distance of about 1.1 crore kilometers from Earth. According to NASA, Dart hit the asteroid at about 22.5 km/h.

The purpose of this collision is not to destroy the asteroid, but to change its orbit i.e. its path in a way. This is the first planetary-defense test and also the world's first space mission to collide with an asteroid.

Question 2: Was NASA's mission a success?

Answer: This asteroid collision mission was successful. Elena Adams, NASA's deputy program manager for the mission, declared the collision a success, saying that the first stage of the mission was successful and DART landed 17 kilometers short of its intended target.

However, another goal of the mission, namely how much the asteroid impact changed its orbit, is not yet known. This will determine how successful the mission is in changing Earth's trajectory in the event of future asteroid threats.

Scientists will monitor and calculate the asteroid's speed and motion for two months, meaning after two months NASA will know how successful it was in changing the asteroid's path.

The full impact of this mission will be known when the European Space Agency's HERA spacecraft visits Dimorphus in 2024. HERA will reach there by 2026.

Question 3 : What is Dimorphus, which the NASA spacecraft collided with?

Answer: The system consists of two asteroids, with a smaller asteroid orbiting the larger asteroid.

Asteroid Dimorphus is 163 meters wide, or about 535 feet, while Didymos is 780 meters, or about 2560 feet long. Dimorphus is a moonlet or 'little moon' asteroid, orbiting the large asteroid Didymos. The distance between Dimorphus and Didymos is only 1.2 km, while Didymos orbits the Sun. It is about 15 crore-30 crore km from the Sun and completes one revolution in 2 years and 1 month. A NASA spacecraft collided with a small asteroid called Dimorphus.

Question 04 : What is an asteroid?

Answer: Asteroids are rocky bodies orbiting the Sun, too small to be called planets. Many asteroids sometimes become their moons due to the gravitational pull of the planets. Jupiter has some lunar examples.

The US space agency NASA has identified more than 1 million asteroids so far.