A historical test to prevent a celestial body from destroying life on Earth

The US space agency "NASA" announced that it has succeeded in diverting an asteroid in a historic test of humanity's ability to prevent a celestial body from destroying life on Earth.

The agency's president, Bill Nelson, said that the "Dart" (Dart) vehicle, which is the size of a refrigerator, deliberately collided with the asteroid Demorophos on September 26 and pushed it into a smaller and faster orbit around another larger asteroid called Didymos.

"This is a defining moment in the defense of the planet and a defining moment for humanity," Nelson added. "NASA has proven that we are serious about defending the Earth."

Nelson explained that the double asteroid reorientation test reduced the orbital period from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours and 23 minutes.

Demorphos needed 11 hours and 55 minutes to make a full circle around Didymus.

Demorphos, which is about 160 meters in diameter, does not pose any danger to Earth, and Nelson went on to say: "This is like a movie scenario, but we are not in Hollywood. This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for anything that the universe may send us."

If its goal is modest compared to the scenarios of a number of science fiction films such as "Armageden", this unprecedented test mission inaugurates the era of rehearsing how humanity will defend itself if an asteroid threatens life on Earth in the future.

To verify that the asteroid's path was altered, the scientists needed to analyze data provided by telescopes on Earth.

These telescopes observed a change in the asteroid's flash when it passed in front of and behind the larger asteroid.

Immediately after the collision, the first scenes, photographed by telescopes on the ground and the nano-satellite in the craft, showed a large cloud of dust around Demorphos stretching thousands of kilometers.

After that, the two most powerful telescopes, James Webb and Hubble, for observing space, revealed detailed footage, especially the movement of material that separated from the asteroid.

The spacecraft has traveled for ten months since it took off from California and until it hit the asteroid.

To hit a target as small as Demorphos, the final stage of the flight was fully automated, turning the craft into something like a self-guided missile.

All of this will make it possible to better understand the composition of Demorphos, which represents a group of fairly common asteroids, and thus measure the precise impact that this technique, called the kinetic impact, can have on them.

Pictures taken of Demimorphos before the collision showed that its surface is gray and rocky and oval in shape, and knowing these details is important in the event that humanity is forced in the future to hit a celestial body approaching the Earth.

The European Hera probe, scheduled to launch in 2024, will monitor Demorphos closely in 2026 to assess the consequences of the collision and calculate the mass of the asteroid for the first time.

So far, about 30,000 asteroids of all sizes have been observed near Earth (they are called near-Earth objects, meaning that their orbit intersects with the orbit of the planet humans).

And finds about three thousand new species every year.

Very few of the billions of asteroids and comets in the Earth's solar system are considered a threat to our planet, and none of them will be in the next 100 years.

According to scientists, almost all asteroids with a diameter of a kilometer or more have been observed.

But they estimate that they have detected only about 40% of asteroids measuring 140 meters or more, and these have the potential to devastate an entire region.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news