According to SciTech Daily, a new study led by Dr. Eloy Peña-Asensio from the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) reveals that NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) conducted in 2022 could potentially create a new meteor shower for Earth.
DART is a “kinetic” spacecraft tasked with crashing into Dimorphos, the “moon” of a larger asteroid named Didymos.
DART was obliterated after the Earth defense test, while the asteroid it collided with was also partially shattered, sending debris flying into space – (Graphic: ESA).
This mission aimed to deflect Dimorphos as a rehearsal for Earth defense: if an asteroid were to threaten Earth in the future, a spacecraft similar to DART would be used to nudge it off course.
The crash caused this half-ton spacecraft to disintegrate, while Dimorphos was also partially broken apart and redirected.
In the new study, Dr. Peña-Asensio and colleagues examined the chaotic debris field created by the impact, as well as various factors that could affect that debris region.
Based on impact modeling, they found that many debris pieces could come within the gravitational influence of Mars in 13 years for a launch velocity of approximately 450 m/s.
Meanwhile, some of the fastest-moving debris is traveling through space at a speed of 770 m/s, potentially heading towards the Earth-Moon system in a similar timeframe.
“In the coming decades, asteroid observation campaigns will play a crucial role in determining whether the debris from Dimorphos caused by DART will reach our planet,” Dr. Peña-Asensio noted.
The likelihood of these debris pieces reaching Earth is quite high, but the authors assure that there is no need for excessive concern.
The debris from this impact is relatively small and is expected to create a meteor shower in the Earth’s sky as each piece burns up in the atmosphere.
According to Dr. Peña-Asensio, if this occurs, we would witness the first meteor shower generated by human activity.
NASA is continuing to investigate the potential widespread effects from the 2022 mission.
Additionally, the agency will collaborate with the European Space Agency (ESA) to directly examine the impacts.
ESA’s Hera spacecraft is scheduled for launch this October, with a mission to reach Dimorphos and conduct a “field investigation.”
