NASA is preparing to hit an asteroid.. The goal is to protect humanity

The US space agency (NASA) has launched an unprecedented mission by launching a spacecraft from California at a speed of 24,000 kilometers per hour to collide with an asteroid in a process aimed at distorting its path.

The spacecraft was named "DART", which in English means "little arrow", made up in this case from the initials of the phrase "Double Asteroid Redirection Test" (Double Asteroid Redirection Experiment), and it took off from California on a Falcon 9 rocket. From SpaceX at 22:21 local time Tuesday (0621 GMT Wednesday).

"Asteroid Demorphos, we're coming to you," NASA wrote in a tweet after the launch.

"We have received our first indication from the Dart Mission that it will continue to open its solar arrays in the coming hours and prepare for its 10-month one-way journey to the asteroid," she added.

Demorphos, a "small moon" about 160 meters wide, orbit a much larger asteroid called Didymos (762 meters in diameter), and they orbit the Sun together.

The collision is supposed to occur in the fall of 2022 when this duo is at a distance of 11 million kilometers from Earth, the closest they can reach.

No threat at the moment

"What we're trying to learn is how to avoid any potential threat," NASA chief scientist Thomas Zuborken said of the $330 million project, the first of its kind.

In fact, the two asteroids in question pose no threat to our planet.

But they belong to a class of objects known as Near-Earth Objects that are about 30 million miles away.

The NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office is particularly interested in asteroids that are more than 140 meters in size and have the ability to settle cities or entire regions of the Earth, as their impact energy is several times greater than the energy of a nuclear bomb.

There are 10,000 asteroids classified as "Near-Earth Objects" with a size of 140 meters and more, but there is no chance that one of them will collide with Earth in the next 100 years.

But experts warn that there are still 15,000 additional similar objects waiting to be discovered.

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