Weather.com 10/8/2021
NASA and SpaceX to Launch DART Mission to Displace Potentially Hazardous Asteroid and its Moonlet
Ever since we heard that an asteroid collision triggered dinosaur extinction, we can’t help but wonder if a similar fate awaits us! And then we hear about a near-Earth binary asteroid consisting of two bodies being classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid. All this may sound apocalyptic, but don’t worry, scientists have us covered. Even though 99% of the potentially hazardous objects have no chance of hitting Earth for the next 100 years at least, space agencies are preparing for the worst.
In a recent development, the US space agency NASA and SpaceX have joined hands once again to displace the asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos. The aim is to prevent these celestial objects spanning a whopping 780 and 160 metres from striking the Earth.
Didymos and Dimorphos are NEOs, or Near-Earth Objects. These are celestial bodies whose orbits bring them within 30 million miles of the Earth. According to NASA, Didymos (the asteroid) and Dimorphos (its moon) will pass within 6,835,083 miles of each other (11 million kilometres).
More:
https://weather.com/en-IN/india/space/news/2021-10-08-dart-mission-to-displace-potentially-hazardous-asteroid-and-its-moonlet
