Dart, the mission didn’t end with the crash on the asteroid

Dimorphos’ special orbit around its more massive twin will be pivotal in helping astronomers to measure the deviation generated by Dart. Most asteroids just circle the Sun, so a small change in their orbits could take years to notice. However, the Dart collision did not alter Dimorphos’ solar orbit, but that around Didymos – Since Dimorphos takes 11 hours and 55 minutes to circle its neighbor, scientists may need only a few weeks to measure more orbits and calculate the variation. . The route could, for example, be shortened by just a few minutes, for example. It’s like having a slightly inaccurate watch, explains Chabot: you realize it’s a bit behind after a week.

In addition to observations from ground-based telescopes and images of Draco, Chabot and his team also await the picture of LiciaCubea small carrycot the size of aItalian space agency (ASI) which was launched by Dart two weeks ago. LiciaCube flew over the asteroid three minutes after the impact, in an attempt to take pictures after the crash, although the cloud of dust and debris generated by the impact could prevent clear photos immediately. Chabot explains that the ASI spacecraft has stored the data on board and that the images will be sent in the coming days and weeks.

That’s why Aida also includes the next one mission Hera of the ESAscheduled for launch in October 2024 and which will cross the pair of asteroids at the end of 2026. Thanks to a radar capable of penetrating the ground and other instruments, the spacecraft will examine the consequences of the crash of Dart, measuring the mass and the composition of the asteroid, its internal structure and the shape of the crater.

“To understand how efficient this technique is and whether we can also use it for much larger asteroids, such as the asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, we greatly depend on additional information from Hera.“, emphasizes Ian Carnelli, Hera project manager. Although the researchers have run many models and simulations for various types of deviations, this experiment will provide finally real data from the universe.

Since a collision with a probe is equivalent to a slight push for an asteroid, the technique employed by Dart only works if there is a sufficient notice which allows us to understand if a dangerous asteroid or comet is heading towards Earth. Scientists would need to about ten years in advance to be able to position the probe so that it meets the body before it is too close to be deflected (unlike what happened in Don’t Look Up, in which the notice was only six months).

In the United States recent surveys have shown that Americans consider planet defense and climate science to be top priorities for the country’s space program, more than missions with crew planned for the Moon and Mars. An understandable opinion, considering how asteroids close to Earth and climate change could threaten all the inhabitants of the planet, which explains why it is necessary for scientists to try tests such as the Dart mission. “Dart is the first demonstration of a technique we could use to defend the planet – says Ernst -. Small-scale theories and laboratory experiments can be done. But these data are really essential to understand what we could do in case of danger“.

This article originally appeared on Wired US.