On Friday, the space agency announced plans to redirect the course of a small asteroid approaching Earth, as part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), according to a NASA press release.<\/p>\n
The release notes that asteroids hit Earth nearly every day, but most are small enough to burn up in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
But the DART project -- a joint effort between NASA and the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland -- is for the asteroids that are too big to break up -- those that could have severe consequences for the Earth if they hit.<\/p>\n
\"DART would be NASA's first mission to demonstrate what's known as the kinetic impactor technique -- striking the asteroid to shift its orbit -- to defend against a potential future asteroid impact,\" said Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defense officer in Washington, in the press release.<\/p>\n
\"This approval step advances the project toward an historic test with a non-threatening small asteroid.\" <\/p>\n
The target of the test is an asteroid system called Didymos, the release said. Didymos -- Greek for \"twin\" -- is a binary asteroid system, made up of one asteroid, Didymos A, and a smaller one, Didymos B, which orbits its larger neighbor. <\/p>\n
In October 2022, as Didymos makes an approach near Earth, NASA will launch a refrigerator-sized spacecraft towards the asteroids, aimed at Didymos B, the release said. When the DART spacecraft and the asteroid collide, the spacecraft will be traveling at a staggering 3.7 miles per second. <\/p>\n
\"The kinetic impact technique works by changing the speed of a threatening asteroid by a small fraction of its total velocity,\" the release says, \"but by doing it well before the predicted impact so that this small nudge will add up over time to a big shift of the asteroid's path away from Earth.\" <\/p>\n
Back home, scientists will study the impact and the effect is has on Didymos B's orbit around Didymos A, to determine whether this technique is a feasible method for saving the planet from asteroids that could otherwise have devastating impacts. <\/p>\n
\"DART is a critical step in demonstrating we can protect our planet from a future asteroid impact,\" said Andy Cheng, one of the leaders of the Johns Hopkins team. \"With DART, we can show how to protect Earth from an asteroid strike with a kinetic impactor by knocking the hazardous object into a different flight path that would not threaten the planet.\" <\/p>\n
CNN's Ashley Strickland contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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NASA unveils plan to test asteroid defense technique - CNN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Friday, the space agency announced plans to redirect the course of a small asteroid approaching Earth, as part of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), according to a NASA press release. The release notes that asteroids hit Earth nearly every day, but most are small enough to burn up in the atmosphere. Continue reading