Though we all have differences, there’s one commonality that has prevailed for all of humanity: we are all floating on a rock, flying through outer space at over a million miles an hour.
Thanks to the rapid advancement of technology in the past century, we can observe much more of the universe than we ever thought possible.
The scale and sheer size of the universe make it impossible to truly learn everything, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
Here's what's happening in space this week.
A NASA spacecraft successfully crashed into the surface of an asteroid at lightning speed on Monday night as part of their DART mission.
What was once a sci-fi movie plot is now a reality thanks to NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). NASA sent a vending machine-sized spacecraft 7 million miles away to slam into Dimorphus, an asteroid with a diameter of 560 feet.
According to NASA, the DART spacecraft impacted the harmless asteroid at 14,000 miles per hour. A live feed of images was sent back from the spacecraft's onboard camera until the moment of impact when the probe was destroyed.
As the asteroid grew nearer, images of massive boulders on its surface became more clear. Those watching from the mission control room on Earth were on the edge of their seat as the unmanned spacecraft zoomed toward the interstellar rock.
“We have impact!” Elena Adams exclaimed as cheers filled the Mission Control room.
This $325 million kamikaze science mission was designed as a practice run for a potential threat to humanity in the future.
While Dimorphus was not a threat to Earth, NASA's goal was to test the possibility of altering the trajectory of an asteroid as a measure of planetary defense.
Following the impact, Mission Control's Elena Adams said during a news conference that the DART mission went just as planned.
“As far as we can tell, our first planetary defense test was a success,” Adams said.
Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, Lori Glaze, added that this planetary defense mission is the dawn of a new era in science.
“We’re embarking on a new era of humankind, an era in which we potentially have the capability to protect ourselves from something like a dangerous hazardous asteroid impact. What an amazing thing. We’ve never had that capability before," she said.
Now that the spacecraft has fulfilled its duty of crashing into the moonlet, scientists and observers will continue the mission on Earth. Telescopes across the globe are now being pointed towards Dimorphus, including the Hubble space telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.
Over the next few months, scientists will be able to determine whether or not the impact altered Dimorphus' position or path in any way.
In 2024, the European Space Agency plans to send an additional spacecraft to revisit Dimorphos and get a closer look at the impacts of the DART mission.
Down the Audacy app and follow 97.1 FM Talk.
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | TikTok
Related
Related
