Nasa dart asteroid deflection test

[Astro Pen]

While most of us probably know about this ambitious project I was not prepared for the too clever for their socks google search results

nasa dart mission - Google Search

 

[THX1138]

That knocked me askew!

 

[JunkMonkey]

I watched it live on Nasa.gov and, though the even itself was pretty tremendous, I am in total awe of the people who can launch something into space and hit something that small without even knowing what it looks like or whether what they are doing will actually work - I was really disappointed by the insultingly bad presentation. Tag teams of crashingly bad, amateurish, semi-scripted, smiley, agreeing 'woo this is so exciting' fakery. It was like they'd imported a couple of Eurovision Song Contest hosts and told them to 'do science'.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Those were androids doing the presentation, no empathy.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Don't think the Clangers will be too happy about this

 

[mosaix]

Apparently, the operation was a success.

Nasa says Dart mission succeeded in shifting asteroid’s orbit

Space agency attempted first test of its kind two weeks ago to see if in the future a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth’s way

www.theguardian.com

NASA’s DART mission moved an asteroid's orbit by smashing into it

After the Double Asteroid Redirect Test mission slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos, it was pushed closer to its larger host asteroid, Didymos, and its orbit became 32 minutes shorter

www.newscientist.com

 

[Wayne Mack]

Apparently, the operation was a success.

Nasa says Dart mission succeeded in shifting asteroid’s orbit

Space agency attempted first test of its kind two weeks ago to see if in the future a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth’s way

www.theguardian.com

NASA’s DART mission moved an asteroid's orbit by smashing into it

After the Double Asteroid Redirect Test mission slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos, it was pushed closer to its larger host asteroid, Didymos, and its orbit became 32 minutes shorter

www.newscientist.com

A smashing success!

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

A smashing success!

I'm just waiting for the announcement that they have moved it onto a collision path with Earth and will have to launch a second dart to push it back!

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Don't think the Clangers will be too happy about this

Tragically, nobody has heard from the Soup Dragon since the impact.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Nasa's Dart spacecraft 'changed path of asteroid'

Smashing a probe into threatening space rocks is a strategy to defend Earth, an experiment confirms.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Foxbat]

I guess NASA won't need to call Bruce Willis anymore

 

[Parson]

I think another big story here is how much the impact effected the orbit of the satellite. "The investigation team has confirmed the spacecraft’s impact altered Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, shortening the 11 hour and 55-minute orbit to 11 hours and 23 minutes. This measurement has a margin of uncertainty of approximately plus or minus 2 minutes."

Before its encounter, NASA had defined a minimum successful orbit period change of Dimorphos as change of 73 seconds or more. This early data show DART surpassed this minimum benchmark by more than 25 times.
NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid’s Motion in Space

There is much to be learned here.

 

[Vladd67]

Sadly there are people out there calling this fake or saying it's a waste of money that should be spent here on earth.

 

[Vince W]

Those would be the same people crying why nothing was done to prevent a collision if such an event were to happen.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'm just waiting for the announcement that they have moved it onto a collision path with Earth and will have to launch a second dart to push it back!

I think one of the things that they took into consideration was that altering Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos didn't change the combined mass of the two asteroids and so their orbit around the sun would stay the same.

 

[Harpo]

Those would be the same people crying why nothing was done to prevent a collision if such an event were to happen.

Maybe it depends on the size of the asteroid, here’s a comparison video which isn’t remotely frightening

 

[Wayne Mack]

So, the last impact, the Ceres size, that destroys the Earth happens every 4 billion years. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Be afraid, very afraid.

 

[Harpo]

So, the last impact, the Ceres size, that destroys the Earth happens every 4 billion years. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Be afraid, very afraid.

It would take a heck of a lot to shift Ceres that much, to make such an impact occur within the next several thousand years. By which time, mostly likely we’d either be a multi planet species or the hypothetical Ceres-shifter would get us too and probably faster.

 

[Ambrose]

Apparently some of the bits from the DART mission may well hit Mars. DART-type deflection of an incoming asteroid would be risky, but perhaps worth it.

Asteroid debris from NASA's successful DART mission may strike Mars

DART mission successfully deflected an asteroid's path by deliberately colliding with it, but Mars may suffer unintended consequences.

www.earth.com

 

[Wayne Mack]

It would take a heck of a lot to shift Ceres that much, to make such an impact occur within the next several thousand years. By which time, mostly likely we’d either be a multi planet species or the hypothetical Ceres-shifter would get us too and probably faster.

But it isn't for Ceres, but a Ceres size asteroid. And the frequency is listed as 4 Billion years.