In a groundbreaking development, researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have discovered that humans successfully deflected an asteroid from its regular orbit around the Sun in a 2022 experiment, marking a historic first in planetary defence.
In 2022, NASA scientists deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid moonlet, Dimorphos, and successfully changed its path around its parent asteroid, Didymos.
For context, a moonlet is a very small natural satellite, typically under 1-2 km in diameter, that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or asteroid.
Now, researchers have found that the first-ever successful demonstration of human capability to change an asteroid’s trajectory also resulted in the deflection of both asteroids from their regular orbits around the Sun.
A recent study published in the journal Science Advances revealed that the spacecraft’s collision with the moonlet caused Didymos’s speed to slow by 11.7 micrometers per second.
The researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign determined the change after examining more than 6,000 orbital laps of the asteroid around the star.
This means that future missions could target the moonlets around asteroids to change their orbit, if they pose a threat to Earth.
The lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington, Thomas Statler, hailed the incredible success achieved through the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).
He said, “This is a tiny change to the orbit, but given enough time, even a tiny change can grow to a significant deflection.”
Despite the success, NASA has warned that there are no other DART-like spacecraft ready for launch if the need arises.
