NASA Uses First-Time Technology To Hit An Asteroid And Change Its Orbit

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This amazing footage offers a once-in-lifetime glance into advanced Earth technology entering space and purposely colliding with an asteroid in order to change its trajectory.

Newsflash obtained footage from NASA, along with a statement, according to which the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully impacted its asteroid target Dimorphos on Monday, 26th September, after 10 months of flying in space.

The DART is the world’s first planetary defence technology demonstration, which successfully carried out the agency’s first attempt to move an asteroid in space.

The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft hits an asteroid on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. Seconds before the impact. (NASA,Johns Hopkins APL/Newsflash)

During the spacecraft’s final moments before impact, its Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) imager took four images capturing its terminal approach as Dimorphos increasingly fills the field of view, according to the statement.

The footage provides a stunning close-up of the asteroid’s outer surface right before it gets knocked out of the way and into oblivion.

The final shot of the footage was reportedly filmed from a distance of approximately 4 miles (6 kilometres) from the asteroid and only 1 second before impact.

The investigation team will now observe Dimorphos using ground-based telescopes to confirm that DART’s impact altered the asteroid’s orbit, NASA said.

Researchers reportedly expect the impact to shorten Dimorphos’ orbit by about 1 per cent, or roughly 10 minutes.

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