By Ryan Higgins
Seven million miles away on September 26, 2022, something major happened. NASA proved that it is possible for humans to alter the flight path of asteroids. More importantly, it was proven that they can now do so with the asteroid’s collision course with Earth through an experiment called “D.A.R.T.” (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). An asteroid named Dimorphos was the object of the D.A.R.T. This was “humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object” (NASA). Kinetic Impact Technology was born on that September evening (NASA). The object of the mission was to alter the speed and trajectory of the celestial object. The asteroid displaced was not alone, and as hinted in the name, Dimorphos was in orbit around a much larger asteroid called Didymos. Previously, Dimorphos would complete its orbit around Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes; now, after its collision with DART, Dimorphos will orbit Didymos every 11 hours and 23 minutes. Slowing down orbit does not only alter the time in which an object takes to encircle another. The reduction of the orbital speed of Dimorphos also shortens the distance between the two asteroids, majorly altering flightpath.
The D.A.R.T. test was entirely exploratory as neither Dimorphos nor Didymos is at all likely to hit Earth in future projections. NASA stated that any change larger than 73 seconds is considered a change to planetary orbit. D.A.R.T. only weighed 1,260 pounds, which is considered a cosmic feather, but Dimorphos weighs 13.8 billion pounds. This is a major discovery for the human species, even though there is only one asteroid that is longer than 300 feet, with a significant chance of colliding with Earth in the next 100 years. There is an asteroid that is not supposed to hit the Earth, but it will come close. In addition, there is a 2.9% chance that an asteroid named Apophis will hit the Earth’s surface, which is 330 meters or ≈1100 feet in diameter, and will come as close as 10.6 million miles to Earth. Apophis has a chance to hit Earth in 2068, but its forecasted chance to collide with Earth in 2029 was ruled out (NASA).
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