New Delhi: A spacecraft of American space agency NASA rammed into an asteroid nearly seven million miles away to deflect its orbit on Monday. The test was conducted to examine if the present-day technology is capable enough to prevent life-threatening celestial objects to collide from Earth.
The spaceship called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) slammed its target Dimorphos at 7:14 pm Eastern Time (2314 GMT) 10 months after exiting the earth’s space from California in its instigating mission.
Lori Glaze, Director of NASA’s planetary science division said on the achievement, “We’re embarking on a new era, an era in which we potentially have the capability to protect ourselves from something like a dangerous hazardous asteroid impact”.
Meanwhile, the scientists and engineers erupted in joy after the accomplishment, a clip of which was shared on the official Twitter handle of the space agency.
Watch:
“IMPACT SUCCESS! Watch from #DARTMIssion’s DRACO Camera, as the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collides with asteroid Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth”, the caption read.
IMPACT SUCCESS! Watch from #DARTMIssion’s DRACO Camera, as the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collides with asteroid Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth. pic.twitter.com/7bXipPkjWD
— NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2022
Talking of the mission, just an hour before the collision of the craft into the 530-foot Dimorphos, a not known asteroid called ‘moonlet’ appeared when the DART was moving rapidly toward its target at a speed of approximately 23,500 kilometres per hour.
The NASA staff froze for a moment as the screen stopped at a final image and then erupted in applause as it proved that the signal was lost and collision had taken place.
Later it was made clear that the asteroids pose no harm to our planet and loop the Sun every two of our years.
