This coming Monday, NASA will have a very important mission. This is his first attempt at deflecting an asteroid from its current orbit.. Best of all, it will be broadcast live to everyone on Earth. If you want to be attentive to the moment when this happens, here we leave you the exact date so that you do not miss a second of this historic event.
For some time, space agencies have focused on developing ground defense plans. And no, not only in the case of extraterrestrial contact – although there is a procedure in this situation -; quicker, if the earth is threatened by a celestial body who wants to leave us in the same state as the ancient dinosaurs.
Luckily, unlike the dinosaurs, we were able to come up with a plan to follow, and it cost a whopping $240 million. This will happen next Monday on the DART ship (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) as the main character. At the designated time, DART will be responsible for deflecting the orbit of an asteroid called Dimorphos.and which orbits a larger asteroid called 65803 Didymos, forming a binary system.
If you’re wondering if there’s a chance this could backfire on life on Earth, the answer is no. NASA made it clear that It is not possible that an asteroid or any material released during the deflection would directly affect our planet.or his people.
How does NASA plan to deflect an asteroid with a spacecraft?
500 kg DART spacecraft was released on November 24, 2021.. On this day, said spacecraft was heading towards Dimorphos, the “moon” of Didyma, whose diameter is about 160 meters. Part of the 780 meters that the main building boasts.
Now, this Monday, September 26, DART will finally reach its destination. It will be here where the ship will intentionally collide with an asteroidin an attempt to deflect the small rock’s orbit around its father.
“This is an experiment on a scale that we want to use or could use if we ever need to deflect a real asteroid.”
Andy Rivkin, Research Fellow, Johns Hopkiss University
How do we know if the mission was successful?
DART will hit the rock at a speed of 6.6 km/s. Consequently, if he is able to change the duration of the circulation of Dimorphos in about 73 seconds, the mission will be considered successful. However, responsible scientists believe that the change will be closer to 10 minutes.
Although DART has a camera on board, the spacecraft will be destroyed on the spotso we won’t be able to see the effects in real time. To do this, a team from the Italian space agency launched a sister ship called LICIACube, which will be responsible for capturing the event at close range.
There will be an impact that will change the trajectory, a crater will form, and then there will be an ejection that will spread through space, and LICIACube will photograph it.
Stavro Ivanovsky, Astronomical Observatory of Trieste
Same way, Telescopes on the ground and in space will also monitor the situation.. Hubble and James Webb, for example, will take measurements of the orbits of Didymos, and later the team will compare them with measurements made earlier.
But that’s not all. In 2024 The European Space Agency is expected to launch another spacecraft called Hera.which captures the consequences of the impact in more detail.
So you can see the broadcast of the event
September 26, 2022 NASA will broadcast the event live. If you want to tune in, you just have to go to the official website they have set up for the occasion. In addition, they also prepared broadcasts for YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
When you have chosen the place where you want to see live, you will be able to see everything in real time on 6:14 in Mexico / 13:14 in Spain. However, the broadcast itself will begin at 5:00 in Mexico and at 12:00 in Spain.
Source: Hiper Textual
