NASA's DART Spacecraft Crashes into Asteroid
Sep 28, 2022
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Probable Question
Context
About Dimorphos and Didymos
About DART
Significance of the Planetary Defence Test ‘DART’
Asteroid Missions
Way Forward
Probable Question
What is the DART, which is called the planetary defense test?
Context
NASA’s spacecraft named Dart was deliberately crashed into an asteroid named Dimorphos, demonstrating that if a killer asteroid ever heads our way, we’d stand a fighting chance of diverting it.
About Dimorphos and Didymos
- Dimorphos is an asteroid with a bull’s-eye, ranging about 7 million miles from Earth.
- It actually provides assistance to a 2500-foot asteroid named Didymos (Greek name means twin).
- Didymos is spinning so fast that scientists believe it flung off material that eventually formed a moonlet, while Dimorphos is roughly 525 feet across, and orbits its parent body at a distance of less than a mile (1.2 kilometers).
- The pair is claimed by NASA as harmless for Earth now or in the future.
About DART
- Full form: DART is short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test.
- The main aim of the mission is to test the newly developed technology that would allow a spacecraft to crash into an asteroid and change its course.
- Features:
- The DART spacecraft weighs around 600 kilograms.
- It has a single instrument: a camera used for navigating, targeting, and chronicling the final action.
- Aim: The spacecraft’s navigation is designed to distinguish between the two asteroids and, in the final 50 minutes, target the smaller one.
- Functioning:
- The smaller asteroid Dimorphos will emerge as a point of light an hour before impact, looming larger and larger in the camera images beamed back to Earth.
- Dart won’t smash into the larger Didymos by mistake, as it is a much bigger asteroid and can be a potential threat to Earth.
- Cameras on Dart and a mini tagalong satellite will capture the collision up close.
Image Source: The Hindu
Significance of the Planetary Defence Test ‘DART’
- The DART spacecraft is humanity’s first attempt to test a planetary defense mechanism.
- Data obtained from DART’s crash will be compared to the data from various computer simulations to ascertain:
- If this kinetic impactor method will remain a viable option in case of an actual threatening asteroid that does end up coming Earth’s way.
- The mission is intended to protect the Earth, and the success of the test will demonstrate one way to protect Earth.
| Note:Kinetic impactor method: The method sends one or more large, high-speed spacecraft to obstruct an approaching near-earth object. |
Asteroid Missions
- NASA has close to a pound (450 grams) of rubble collected from asteroid Bennu headed to Earth.
- Japan was the first to retrieve asteroid samples, accomplishing the feat twice.
- China hopes to follow suit with a mission launching in 2025.
- NASA’s Spacecraft and Initiatives:
- NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is headed to asteroids near Jupiter, after launching last year.
- Spacecraft named Near-Earth Asteroid Scout is loaded into NASA’s new moon rocket awaiting liftoff; it will use a solar sail to fly past a space rock that’s less than 60 feet (18 meters) next year.
- In 2026, NASA will launch a census-taking telescope to identify hard-to-find asteroids that could pose risks.
- NASA’s Psyche spacecraft should have launched this year to a metal-rich asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, but the team couldn’t test the flight software in time.
Read yesterday’s edition of Current Affairs on Supreme Court Live Streams Constitution Bench Proceedings,in case you missed reading it.
Way Forward
- NASA's investigation team will now observe the asteroid by relying on ground-based telescopes to confirm and determine just how much DART altered the asteroid's orbit around Didymos.
- Researchers will be measuring how much the asteroid was deflected is one of the primary purposes of the full-scale test."
| Additional Information: Asteroids: They are basically airless rocky body worlds that orbit around the sun. Asteroids are not big enough to be called planets, thus also called planetoids or minor planets. Although asteroids are small enough, they can still harm the planet as they have already hit the Earth in the past and can hit it more in the future. Differentiation between Asteroids, Comet, Meteoroid, Meteorite, and Meteor: Asteroids: They are small, inactive, rocky bodies revolving around the Sun. Comets: They are relatively small, at times active, the vaporization of Comet’s ices due to sunlight forms either an atmosphere (coma) of dust and gas or an atmosphere of a tail of dust and/or gas. Meteoroid: It is a result of a small particle from a comet or asteroid, revolving around the Sun. Meteorite: Those meteoroids that survive their passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and land on the Earth’s surface. Meteor: It is the light phenomenon that occurs when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes; commonly known as a shooting star. |
News Source: The Indian Express, The Hindu
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