In a groundbreaking development, scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have discovered that humans successfully deflected an asteroid from its regular orbit around the Sun in a 2022 experiment, marking a historic first in planetary defense.
In 2022, NASA scientists deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid moon, Dimorphos, and successfully changed its path around its parent asteroid, Didymos.
For context, a moon is a very small natural satellite, typically less than 1-2 km in diameter, orbiting a planet, dwarf planet or asteroid.
Now, researchers have found that the first ever successful demonstration of humans’ ability to alter an asteroid’s orbit also resulted in the deflection of both asteroids from their regular orbits around the Sun.
A recent study published in the journal Science Advances revealed that the spacecraft’s collision with the moon caused Didymos’ speed to decrease by 11.7 micrometers per second.
The researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign determined the change after examining more than 6,000 orbital revolutions of the asteroid around the star.
This means that future missions could target the lunar orbiters around asteroids to alter their orbits if they pose a threat to Earth.
The lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA headquarters in Washington, Thomas Statler, hailed the incredible success achieved by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).
He said: “This is a small change to the circuit, but given enough time, even a small change can grow into a significant deflection.”
Despite the success, NASA has warned that there are no other DART-like spacecraft ready for launch should the need arise.
