Hey Bruce Willis, they did it!

NASA’s DART mission moved an asteroid

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Even NASA’s Administrator couldn’t avoid mentioning Hollywood’s portrayal of missions to save Earth from an asteroid when he took to the podium. Alert Bruce Willis and his “Armageddon” cohorts, the NASA boss revealed that his agency actually moved an asteroid’s trajectory. The DART mission is a success.

Trailer for the asteroid movie "Armageddon" in 1988. (Credit: Touchstone)

NASA sent a spacecraft the size of a refrigerator to slam into an asteroid to change its orbit just a little bit. The test was aimed at proving that if we see an asteroid heading directly at Earth, like the one that destroyed the dinosaurs, we could nudge it just a bit so that it misses our precious planet.

BULLSEYE

Two weeks ago the DART space vehicle did hit the small asteroid after traveling seven million miles as part of this planetary defense test. The DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft was traveling 14,000 miles an hour. When it hit, scientists saw rock and dust being thrown from the surface of the small asteroid.

Images from the DART spacecraft as it approached its collision with an asteroid in September. (Credit: NASA)

But would that actually change the asteroid’s orbit? Scientists thought if they shortened the nearly 12-hour orbit of Dimorphos around a larger asteroid between a little over a minute and up to 10 minutes, they would be successful.

DID IT WORK?

For the past two weeks telescopes around the world and in space have been looking at the two asteroids. The scientists have confirmed they shortened Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos beyond their expectations. Dimporphos’ orbit was cut by 32 minutes. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called this a, “watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity.”

Images of the collision of the DART spacecraft with Dimorphos. (Credit: NASA)

The scientists who worked on this mission were giddy when they hit the small asteroid last month. That was a dart hitting the bullseye. Now proof that it had an effect. “For the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary object,” NASA’s Lori Glaze told reporters, adding this is a, “remarkable achievement.” “It’s just been so cool. The whole world has been watching this,” Glaze said.

WARNING TIME

The test suggests that such a kinetic impact might work in the future. But this is only the beginning of the effort to defend the planet. Nancy Chabot of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University called the test results “exciting and promising.” She says this, “could potentially work,” if the planet was threatened by an asteroid.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson calls the DART success a "watershed moment." (Credit: NASA)

But don’t expect DART rockets to be at the ready for launches against planet-killing asteroids. “You’d want to do it years in advance. Warning time is really key here in order to enable this sort of asteroid defection to potentially be used in the future and it is part of a much larger planetary defense strategy,” Chabot said.

What the scientists want is more information and tracking of asteroids or comets that could pose a threat to Earth. They also want spacecraft that can go out and study these potential problem asteroids to see what they look like. Are they rock, or do they have a soft surface? That could determine how effective a kinetic impact might be in changing the trajectory of a specific asteroid.

Scientists from the DART project say their success proves an asteroid can be moved, but more work is necessary. (Credit: NASA)

There is plenty of work to do. As NASA’s boss said, his agency is trying to be prepared for, “whatever the universe throws at us.” At least now we know we might be able to do something about it.

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(Cover images credit: NASA)