The planned impact of NASA’s Dart spacecraft against the asteroid Dimorphos is calculated for the month of September.
This year will see a milestone in planetary defense: the mission of the dart by NASA is the first test with which an asteroid will be deflected.
The goal is the binary system formed by Didymos (780 meters in diameter) to which it orbits Abode (160 meters), it poses no threat and when the quake occurs in mid-September, it will be about eleven million kilometers from Earth.
dart is a “kamikaze robotic probe” highly sophisticated that will be thrown at Dimorphos and, depending on the crater that is excavated with the impact and the amount of material that is thrown in the opposite direction, there will be more or less deviations, he explains.
The projection into space of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft and of the LICIACube of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), a few moments before the impact on the Didymos binary system.
Based on a new computer model, a team of researchers was able to simulate the effects of the impact and go well beyond a small crater. It appears that DART will cause a massive deformation of the asteroid to the point of making it unrecognizable.
The impact will be observed live, both from space and from the main observatories of the world, to collect the first data. Two years later, the Hera probe of the European Space Agency (ESA) will visit these asteroids to characterize them and analyze the effects of the crash “in situ”.
A schematic from the DART mission shows the expected impact on the asteroid Didymos B.
Dimorphos is “a magnificent example” of the typical objects that in the future we may have to deviate, like asteroids of about 100 mt. “We will see the efficiency, if indeed it is sufficient to be able to cause a significant deviation,” said astrophysicist Josep María Trigo.
For Trigo it is a mission and a international collaboration “much needed”, With which a lot of knowledge will be acquired and a first idea of the effectiveness of this method, that of the kinetic impactor without explosive charge, will be given.
“The impact of DART it will warp Dimorphos until it changes shape significantly, not just to create a small crater ”, explains Martin Jutzi, co-author of the study published in The newspaper of the planetary society.
A new study has determined what the possible damage to the Dimorphos satellite will be when it is hit by the DART probe in September.
The DART mission – “Double Asteroid Redirection Test”, according to its acronym in English -, was launched in November 2021. Didymos is a double system composed of Didymos, an 800-meter-wide rock around a small 170-meter moon called Dimorphos, the main focus of DART. The ship will crash on this little moon at more than 24,000 km / h to try to deflect its orbit. This impact is calculated for September or October of this year and will occur 11 million kilometers from Earth.
The goal of DART is clear– Determines whether this type of asteroid intercepts are effective. “This type of weak asteroid can be deflected better and with much more material projected by the impact. Everything indicates that the mission will be successful, but with different results than expected in the first place, “said Jutzi.
The European space agency plans a follow-up mission for 2024. It will be called Hera and will contact Didymos in 2026 to examine in depth what effects the impact had on the asteroid. If the asteroid has been deformed, it will be vital to learn more about its interior. “Ideally, we will learn something about the interior of the asteroid. Not just on the surface. This will improve our understanding of asteroids in general, ”concluded Jutzi.
Source: Clarin