{"id":7326,"date":"2022-02-25T17:28:07","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T17:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7326"},"modified":"2022-02-25T17:28:07","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T17:28:07","slug":"the-quest-to-avert-an-asteroid-apocalypse-is-going-surprisingly-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7326","title":{"rendered":"The quest to avert an asteroid apocalypse is going surprisingly well"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Last year, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test<\/a> (DART), which is a car-size box outfitted with solar panels. It\u2019s currently on its way to a 160-meter asteroid called Dimorphos. In the fall, DART will crash into Dimorphos at 24,000 kilometers an hour (about 15,000 miles per hour).
Dimorphos is a \u201cmoonlet\u201d asteroid, which means it orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos, much like the moon orbits the Earth. If all goes according to plan, the collision will change its orbit, proving that it\u2019s possible to redirect a big hunk of rock in the middle of space. (The larger asteroid\u2019s gravitational pull will help ensure that Dimorphos doesn\u2019t fly off in a new direction, say, toward Earth.)
DART is the definition of a long shot. \u201cThis has never been tried before,\u201d Andrews explains on Unexplainable<\/em>. If it doesn\u2019t work, that doesn\u2019t mean we couldn\u2019t ever deflect an asteroid. But perhaps it will take more force than DART can supply.”
…
“If DART works, NASA can build a similar strategy into its anti-asteroid game plan. If they spot an asteroid heading toward Earth, \u201cthey can send a precursor mission to observe it beforehand,\u201d Andrews says. In those initial observations, scientists can study the asteroid\u2019s composition and make calculations for how much force it will take to deflect the rock. \u201cYou could then send a DART-like mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem of asteroids potentially crashing into the Earth is not yet solved. Still, a couple hundred years in the future, it\u2019s possible that scientists like Fast will be hailed as forward-thinking heroes who laid the groundwork of a planetary defense system. \u201cThere\u2019s no greater gift that America\u2019s space agency can give\u201d than protection for humans of the future, Fast says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though these disasters might not arrive in our lifetimes, we can still feel good about the progress being made.\u00a0It\u2019s a way to be good ancestors<\/a>\u00a0to the generations that follow us. On the long list of problems to solve and disasters to mitigate, maybe we can actually solve one.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/science-and-health\/2022\/1\/26\/22879970\/nasa-asteroids-comets-dart-dont-look-up<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Last year, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which is a car-size box outfitted with solar panels. It\u2019s currently on its way to a 160-meter asteroid called Dimorphos. In the fall, DART will crash into Dimorphos at 24,000 kilometers an hour (about 15,000 miles per hour).<\/p>\n

Dimorphos is a \u201cmoonlet\u201d asteroid, which means it orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos, much like the moon orbits the Earth. If all goes according to plan, the collision will change its orbit, proving that it\u2019s possible to redirect a big hunk of rock in the middle of space. (The larger asteroid\u2019s gravitational pull will help ensure that Dimorphos doesn\u2019t fly off in a new direction, say, toward Earth.)<\/p>\n

DART is the definition of a long shot. \u201cThis has never been tried before,\u201d Andrews explains on Unexplainable. If it doesn\u2019t work, that doesn\u2019t mean we couldn\u2019t ever deflect an asteroid. But perhaps it will take more force than DART can supply.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“If DART works, NASA can build a similar strategy into its anti-asteroid game plan. If they spot an asteroid heading toward Earth, \u201cthey can send a precursor mission to observe it beforehand,\u201d Andrews says. In those initial observations, scientists can study the asteroid\u2019s composition and make calculations for how much force it will take to deflect the rock. \u201cYou could then send a DART-like mission.\u201d
\nThe problem of asteroids potentially crashing into the Earth is not yet solved. Still, a couple hundred years in the future, it\u2019s possible that scientists like Fast will be hailed as forward-thinking heroes who laid the groundwork of a planetary defense system. \u201cThere\u2019s no greater gift that America\u2019s space agency can give\u201d than protection for humans of the future, Fast says.<\/p>\n

Even though these disasters might not arrive in our lifetimes, we can still feel good about the progress being made. It\u2019s a way to be good ancestors to the generations that follow us. On the long list of problems to solve and disasters to mitigate, maybe we can actually solve one.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1560,955,954],"class_list":["post-7326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-asteroid","tag-nasa","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7327,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7326\/revisions\/7327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}