Four years ago, NASA purposely smashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid to see if they could deflect it — a test to prove humanity could protect Earth from threatening space rocks.<\/p>\n
The experiment pushed the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos into a smaller, faster route around its sibling Didymos — and according to new research out Friday, it also pushed the pair into a slightly different orbit around the Sun.<\/p>\n
The test on Dimorphos was never based on any actual threat to our planet.<\/p>\n
But the successful experiment and additional analysis offers a solid data point to mount a defense if any such eventual threat is detected, researchers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This study marks a notable step forward in our ability to prevent future asteroid impacts on Earth,” the team of international researchers wrote in their new paper published in the journal Science Advances.<\/p>\n
Their observations detailed in the paper showed that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in 2022 marked “the first time a human-made object has measurably altered the path of a celestial body around the Sun,” NASA said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Rahil Makadia, the study’s lead author, told AFP his team tracked stellar occultations — the moment when an asteroid passes in front of a star, causing a brief dimming for less than a second — to obtain hyper-precise measurements of the asteroid’s position, speed and shape.<\/p>\n
– Tiny change, significant deflection –<\/p>\n
Obtaining this data is no small feat. The team relied on volunteer astronomers from around the globe, who recorded 22 of these stellar occultations.<\/p>\n
Using that data along with years of additional observations, Makadia said the team was able to measure Didymos’s orbit around the sun with precision.<\/p>\n
“We were able to measure what this change was exactly,” he said, and make computations that could assist with future “planetary defense efforts.”<\/p>\n
The orbital change was miniscule — just 0.15 seconds.<\/p>\n
But it’s enough to make a difference, scientists say.<\/p>\n
“This is a tiny change to the orbit, but given enough time, even a tiny change can grow to a significant deflection,” said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The team’s amazingly precise measurement again validates kinetic impact as a technique for defending Earth against asteroid hazards and shows how a binary asteroid might be deflected by impacting just one member of the pair.”<\/p>\n
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