(Taiwan English News / International Group Comprehensive report) The United States Space Agency (NASA) on Tuesday (23rd) sent a space vehicle to simulate an asteroid hitting the earth, intercepting it in orbit and knocking it out of orbit to save the earth from the threat of doomsday.
The aircraft involved in the test is called DART, which is the abbreviation of Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), and was launched yesterday at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SpaceX’s rocket “Falcon 9” (Falcon 9) sent a $330 million aircraft into space.
Nancy Chabot from the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University said that the aircraft will not destroy the asteroid, but will cause a huge change in the asteroid’s position so that it does not collide with the earth.
The Associated Press pointed out that if all goes well, it will hit the double asteroid head-on-“Didymos” and its satellite “Dimorphos” in September 2022.
“Dimofus” is an asteroid with a diameter of 525 feet (160 meters) and a speed of 15,000 mph (equivalent to 24,139 km/h). At that time, the aircraft will collide with “Dimofus” at a speed of 23,760 kilometers per hour. Sri Lanka” to change its track.
If the plan is successful, it will be the first time in human history that the dynamics of the solar system’s celestial bodies have been changed in an “artificial way.” NASA stated that although no asteroid is currently known to collide with the Earth, and they will not have much chance to hit the Earth in the next hundred years, there are indeed a large number of asteroids close to the Earth outside, and planetary defense (planetary defense) The key is to find asteroids before they become a threat and knock them out of orbit.
