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This space probe is supposed to ram a moon: can NASA save the earth in this way?

2021-11-16T11:33:46.171Z


NASA's DART mission is about to start. If everything goes according to plan, the spacecraft will ram the moon Dimorphos in October 2022.


NASA's DART mission is about to start.

If everything goes according to plan, the spacecraft will ram the moon Dimorphos in October 2022.

Munich - Eleven million kilometers from Earth is the moon Dimorophos of the asteroid Didymos.

It is part of a two-part asteroid, Dimorphos orbits the larger body Didymos.

Exactly this is the goal of the space probe DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), which is to start in a few days on November 24th.

She is supposed to ram the moon.

Shortly before her arrival, she will deploy a small daughter probe that is supposed to record everything up close, reports

deutschlandfunk.de.

NASA probe DART should reach asteroids in 2022

The mission is to show whether asteroids can, in principle, be easily pushed out of their trajectories through a targeted collision.

The idea behind this is that asteroids that are heading for Earth could then possibly also be brought onto a different orbit.

The target asteroid from DART is not a threat to the earth, emphasizes NASA on its website.

But it is the perfect test location to research the effect of an impact on the orbit of celestial bodies.

Orbit of asteroid and moon verifiable from earth

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So the orbit of Dimorphos could be changed.

© JHU / NASA (illustration)

The path of a moon is likely to change more than that of the asteroid itself. The radius of the moon's orbit changes by less than one percent on impact. That is enough to change the length of the moon's orbit, which lasts about 12 hours, by a few minutes. This would make it possible to follow the change well from Earth. The asteroid Didymos is about 780 meters in diameter, its moon Dimorphos is about 160 meters tall.

There are already further plans for Dimorphos.

Because in 2026 the ESA mission HERA is to reach the asteroid and examine it.

She will then also investigate the DART impact crater.

It was actually planned that the ESA probe should already be on site when DART arrives.

Earth rescue missions in Europe received no funding for a long time.

Together, NASA and ESA hope to find a way to protect the earth from future impacts.

(jv)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-11-16

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