The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on October 11 that the DART mission has successfully altered the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos after its spacecraft intentionally collided with this celestial body.
Image of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft flying past the asteroid Didymos (left) and preparing to collide with Dimorphos (right) on September 27, 2022 (Image broadcast on screen at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center).
According to NASA, this is the first time humanity has intentionally changed the motion of an extraterrestrial object, marking a significant demonstration of asteroid deflection technology.
Previously, Dimorphos took 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos. Following the intentional collision of DART with Dimorphos on September 26, researchers confirmed that Dimorphos’s orbital period around Didymos has now decreased to 11 hours and 23 minutes.
NASA emphasizes that the DART mission aims to change the orbit of an asteroid through kinetic impact, testing and validating methods to protect Earth in the event of a potential asteroid collision threat.
The DART spacecraft was launched on November 23, 2021, and underwent a 10-month journey to reach its target asteroid.
