The mission aims to prevent giant asteroids from wiping out life on Earth forever.
NASA missions to destroy an asteroid with a spacecraft. The experimental mission aims to prevent giant asteroids from wiping out life on Earth forever.
Although it may seem like a science fiction story, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission is a reality. The spacecraft was launched on a SpaceX rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The mission aims to make a small change in the orbit of the Moonlet asteroid Dimorphos, which is about 525 feet wide. This asteroid orbits the smaller asteroid Didymus (2,500 feet in diameter). This asteroid pair orbits the sun together.
The mission is expected to reach 6.8 million miles (11 million km) from Earth in 2022. This is the shortest distance from Earth that both asteroids can reach.
But NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination office is interested in asteroids larger than 460 feet, capable of wiping out cities and large areas with twice the energy of atomic bombs.
There are 10,000 such asteroids near Earth. But none of these is likely to hit Earth in the next 100 years. However, scientists estimate that 15,000 similar space objects are yet to be discovered.
Scientists estimate that asteroids larger than 460 feet fall to Earth only once every 20,000 years.
Asteroids larger than six miles are estimated to hit Earth once every 100-200 million years. One such asteroid struck the Earth 66 million years ago, causing the extinction of most species.
Elon Musk's comment over DART to revenge the asteroids is gaining momentum on twitter and also creates an awareness of NASA's DART Daring mission.
