Spacecraft collides with asteroid in Earth saving test run
A NASA spacecraft with specialist guidance from Australian tracking systems has crashed into a deep space asteroid in a dress rehearsal for attempting to prevent an asteroid one day slamming into Earth.
The spacecraft collided with an asteroid the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza on Tuesday morning, in what was the world’s first full-scale planetary defence test.
The 570-kilogram spacecraft named Dart and the small asteroid known as Dimorphos crashed into each other 11 million kilometres from Earth as part of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.
The test is to determine if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change slightly change its course.
The NASA bunker broke out into cheers and applause as the test was deemed a success.
While no known asteroid larger than 140 metres in size has a significant chance of hitting Earth for the next 100 years, it’s estimated only about 40 per cent have been identified to date.
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The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex received the final signals from the spacecraft as it approached and impacted Dimorphos.
It also captured images and data from a cubesat module, which already separated from Dart.
The European Space Agency’s deep space tracking station in Western Australia also supported the mission.
During the final stages, its 35-metre antenna at New Norcia received data from the spacecraft that will be used by scientists to estimate the mass of the asteroid, surface type and impact site.
-with AAP
