Two weeks after the spacecraft collided with Dimorphos, researchers determined it knocked the space rock 32 minutes off its old orbit.
Glaze and DART coordination lead Nancy Chabot stressed that although the deflection attempt was very successful, putting these lessons into practice in the future will require much advance preparation. "The more time we have, the better off we are," said Glaze. Ideally, NASA would want to bump an asteroid when it’s far from Earth—perhaps a decade away—when a small nudge can translate to a big change in trajectory.
The DART scientists will get even more detailed information from the European Space Agency’s HERA probe, which is slated for launch in October 2024 and will rendezvous with the asteroid pair in late 2026. Astronomers also need to complete their inventory of potentially dangerous asteroids, Chabot said, including objects Dimorphos’ size and larger. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor, scheduled for launch in early 2026, will aid that effort.
But for now, the DART team is celebrating a remarkable first demonstration of how humanity might one day thwart a cosmic threat. “All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it’s the only one we have,” Nelson said. “This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us.”
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