Indian scientists said NASA’s mission to deflect an asteroid is a step towards preparing the world for a possible future asteroid attack that killed off dinosaurs some 66 million years ago, which is likely to be very short in our lifetime. It is, Indian scientists said.
In a first-of-its-kind mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft successfully crashed into an asteroid on Tuesday to test whether future Earth-threatening space rocks could be safely out of the way. can go or not.
DART – the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration – targeted the asteroid moon Dimorphos, a small body just 160 meters in diameter.
“We are surrounded by many asteroids and comets that orbit our Sun. Very few of them are potentially dangerous to Earth. Therefore, it is our defense to avoid such asteroids on a collision course with Earth in the future. It’s better to be prepared,” Crisfin said. Karthik, scientist from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore.
Karthik, who was involved in the DART project, said that the mission is “certainly a step towards preparing the world for a possible future event” that is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago. .
Karthik told PTI, “This successful Dart mission is an example of this. Now we know how to precisely target the spacecraft for such a small body. We can see ourselves from the after-effects of this Dart mission from the observations of the larger body.” You can also prepare.”
Dimorphos orbits a larger 780-metre asteroid called Didymos. No asteroid is a threat to Earth. By comparison, the asteroid that killed the Earth-bound dinosaurs was about 10 kilometers in diameter.
The DART mission’s one-way trip, NASA confirmed, can successfully navigate a spacecraft to deliberately deflect it to hit an asteroid, a technique known as kinetic effect.
Gautam Chattopadhyay, a senior scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the US, also said that the mission will help prepare for the dangerous asteroid for the future.
“DART is an experimental mission to test the concept of deflecting an asteroid. The idea is that, if we can encounter these asteroids whose trajectory is toward us and we do so at a sufficient distance from Earth, then A slight deflection would be enough to change the course of the asteroid,” he said.
However, the scientists noted that most asteroids, which are somewhat significant in size and can cause damage on impact on Earth, have little chance of colliding with their planet.
“However, the probability of this is not zero and we should always be cautious. There is always a possibility that someone big may move towards us and the question becomes what will be our approach and how can we reduce it. Why these programs are important are,” Chattopadhyay told PTI.
“At least for the next century, there is no such threat from known asteroids that could cause mass casualties,” Karthik said. However, this risk assessment is based on asteroids known so far to science.
Small asteroids collide with Earth all the time, but they burn up due to the heat generated in the atmosphere. However, for sufficiently large asteroids, it is not because the outer core will burn up but there will be enough mass left to cause damage.
The team will now observe Dimorphos using ground-based telescopes to confirm that the Dart impact changed the asteroid’s orbit around Didymos.
The researchers expect that to shorten Dimorphos’ orbit by about 1 percent, or about 10 minutes; Measuring precisely how much the asteroid was deflected is one of the primary objectives of the full-scale test.
“After the impact, the team will observe Dimorphos using ground-based telescopes to confirm that the Dart impact changed the asteroid’s orbit around Didymos,” said Karthik.
“The expected output of the impact is to shorten the orbit of Dimorphos by about 1 percent, or about 10 minutes. One of the primary goals is to measure the deflection of the asteroid’s orbit,” he said.
However, Chattopadhyay said whether the mission is capable of deflecting the asteroid’s orbit or not, it will be known only after all the data is collected.
“I would emphasize that our calculations and small-scale laboratory experiments show that this may work well.” He said that NASA has a multi-pronged approach to monitoring Near Earth Asteroids (NEA). The space agency began the observation program in 1998. Most discoveries are supported by ground-based telescopic surveys, “We mainly use radar and lidar for this. Mostly they are ground-based systems. However, our existing satellites in space are also used to image And track these objects,” said the scientist.
Lidar is a method of determining distance by targeting an object or surface with a laser and measuring the time taken for the reflected light.
“The Dart mission is humanity’s first attempt to alter the trajectory of an asteroid by crashing a man-made object. Today’s successful impact is a major step in that direction.
Dibyendu Nandi, a space scientist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, said, “However, to know the eventual success of this concept, we will have to wait a few more years until a significant change in the trajectory is clearly evident.” Will happen.” ,
