Sunday Times E-Paper

NASA: US space agency crashes spacecraft into asteroid

US space agency NASA has successfully crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, to try to force it to go in a different direction.

Thetest mission happened 11 million km (7 million miles) away in space, on a target called Dimorphos.

The asteroid isn’t on a path to hit Earth and this test won’t accidentally make it head this direction either. possible to change the course of an asteroid or space rock in case it is needed in the future.

The space agency said they won’t know if they’ve successfully managed to change the asteroid’s course for a few weeks yet, but they’re happy the crash worked according to their plan.

Tom Statler from the NASA Dart Mission said: “It is just a test, it is a test on an asteroid that is not a danger to Earth. There is nothing we can do to it to make it a danger to Earth.

“We’re doing it now when we don’t have to, in order to develop an asteroid if we ever should need to in the future.”

Speaking about the mission, Dr. Lori Glaze, the director of planetary science at the space agency, said: “We’re embarking on a new era of humankind, an era in which we potentially have the capability to protect ourselves from something like a dangerous hazardous asteroid impact. What an amazing thing; we’ve never had that capability before.”

What is the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) mission?

NASA’s Dart mission wants to see space rock from hitting Earth.

It happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning UK time (September 27) far, far away from the Earth – so there’s no need to worry!

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2022-10-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://sundaytimes.pressreader.com/article/283712663292149

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