Question: NASA launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission recently. Which of the following asteroid will it impact in near future?
a) Bennu
b) Dimorphos
c) Pallas
d) None of these
Answer: (b)
Related Facts:-
- On 24 November 2021 NASA launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.
- It is the world’s first full-scale mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards.
- The launch of mission spacecraft had taken place on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
- DART in its present journey will impact a known asteroid Dimorphos, that is not a threat to Earth.
- Dimorphos is actually moonlet of another big asteroid Didymos.
- Its goal is to slightly change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be accurately measured using ground-based telescopes.
- DART will show that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it.
- This kind of collision by the spacecraft upon any moving space object is a method of deflection called kinetic impact.
- The test will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose real impact hazard to Earth.
- Prior to DART’s impact to capture images of the impact a satellite LICIACube, a CubeSat riding with DART will detach itself from the spacecraft.
- CubeSat has been provided by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), to capture images of the impact and the resulting cloud of ejected matter.
- In further span of four years, after DART’s impact, European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Hera project will conduct detailed surveys of both asteroids
- Hera project survey will particularly focus on the crater left by DART’s collision and a precise determination of Dimorphos’ mass.
Links:-
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-spacex-launch-dart-first-test-mission-to-defend-planet-earth