NASA launches its first-of-its-kind mission to deflect an asteroid.
If an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, can humanity be saved not with a bang, but with a nudge?by intentionally crashing a spacecraft into it. The mission offers a rare, real-world chance to test a planetary defense strategy that could protect Earth from a potentially catastrophic collision in the future., short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, launched Wednesday at 1:21 a.m. ET from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The spacecraft rode into orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Neither Dimorphos nor Didymos pose a threat to the planet, according to NASA, but the system is a"perfect testing ground" for whether crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid can effectively change its motion in space.at a speed of around 15,000 mph.
"This isn't going to destroy the asteroid — it's just going to give it a small nudge," she said earlier this month in a news briefing."It's actually going to deflect its path around the larger asteroid, so we're demonstrating asteroid deflection in this double asteroid system.
The agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is tasked with searching for near-Earth objects that are potentially hazardous to the planet, including those that venture within 5 million miles of Earth’s orbit, and objects large enough to cause significant damage if they hit the surface.
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