DART MISSION: Will it show you a way to avoid a dangerous asteroid collision?

- Future Science-KR Chowdhury

Who has the power to remove the nomenclature of all living things from the earth? What is the greatest threat to human existence? Terrorism? A catastrophic epidemic? Earthquake? This is the answer to the question. 'Asteroid collision!' An asteroid is an asteroid. Between Mars and Jupiter lies the entire belt of many such asteroids. Asteroids are thought to be responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs millions of years ago. The asteroid has a diameter of 10 km. As is estimated. A massive asteroid collision is also believed to be responsible for the Moon's separation from Earth. Fifty thousand years ago, a 1.50 km asteroid collided in Arizona. Where the Beringer meteorite crater is created. Tens of thousands of people were killed when a meteorite exploded over the Chinese city of Chilingan in 190. In 1904, a 30-meter meteorite landed on the Tuguska region of Siberia. According to the calculations made by the computer of an Australian engineer named Michael Payne, if only 5 km of spacecraft collided with the earth, then 20 million megatons of energy would explode and the entire human race on the earth would be destroyed! Is there a way to avoid it? 'Armageddon' and 'Deep Impact' have also been made into films, focusing on asteroid collisions in Hollywood, which seem to be science fiction.

Asteroid Collision - Unexpected Disaster

Between Mars and Jupiter, an eye belt of asteroids of various shapes and sizes is formed. At the time of the creation of the solar system orbit, a solid rocky spacecraft orbiting the Sun, which failed to form a planet and / or for some reason crashed into a huge planet. These microspheres are known as asteroids. These are known as asteroids, asteroids or astral planets.

In 2006, the US Congress instructed the world-renowned space agency NASA to search for and obtain details of asteroids larger than 150 meters. At present the Earth is not in danger of colliding with any asteroid in the asteroid belt. The real threat to Earth is not from giant asteroids, as giant asteroids larger than 1 km have been identified. Their orbit has also been checked. Thus, for the next few centuries, there is no danger of an asteroid larger than 1 km on Earth. The biggest threat to Earth is asteroids smaller than a kilometer. In the solar system, more than 3,000 asteroids with a length of 120 meters orbit the sun. One century ago today, on the morning of June 30, 1908, a massive eruption near the Podkamenaya Tunguska River in the Russian-controlled Yenisek Governorate of Siberia (now Krasnoyarsk Krai) is known as the Tunguska Incident. The meteorite, which is about 50 meters long, exploded here. Due to which an area of ​​two thousand square kilometers of forest was flattened. On February 12, 2016, an asteroid exploded in mid-air in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Its length was estimated to be only 15 meters. However, a window-shattering shockwave was generated during the blast. Its blast capacity was 40 kilotons of TNT. The blast injured 1,200 people. Often the result can be worse than this. In short, a mistaken asteroid could strike Earth at any time. Which could be a threat to the earth.

Andy Rivkin: Responsible Mission

At one point Andy Rivkin was studying in college. His other friends were then studying in medical college. Once a friend asked, why didn't he join the medical college? Andy Rivkin's response was, "I don't have to do anything that will take a heavy toll on me." Studying astronomy is safe for me. Andy Rivkin thought that the easiest and safest activity was to do a root canal for someone's teeth, to have surgery to cut the abdomen, or to look at the stars through a telescope in the dark of night. But luck is not always what you expect it to be. Andy Rivkin was appointed a planetary astronomer at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. Where he is tasked with taking on more responsibilities than he expected. Along with hundreds of other tasks, he is primarily responsible for working on a unique project. A space mission was recently sent to a distant meteorite by Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. This is the name of the mission. 'Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission'. Which is abbreviated as 'Dart'.

For the past decade, NASA has been studying asteroids that pose a threat to Earth. To protect the Earth from asteroid collisions, scientists have begun a special kind of study. NASA and other organizations have jointly prepared a 'Dart' mission to prepare for such an event in the future. As part of the study, a space mission is launched from Earth on November 8. NASA has named it 'Dart'. Dart's scientific method for working with dangerous asteroids is known as the Kinetic Impactor technique. At present no asteroid is coming to our planet to cause a collision with the Earth. So there is no need to panic.

'Kinetic Impactor Technique'

The European Space Agency and NASA made a joint effort to send a study mission to fundamentally change the path of a dangerous asteroid approaching Earth. The two organizations then decided to pursue their mission independently. Under which the European Space Agency sent a mission named 'Aim' into space in December 2020. NASA sent a small cubeset satellite with a dart mission in November 2021. Scientists will test the kinetic impactor technique to change the orbit of a dangerous asteroid. Ten days before the collision, an Italian-made 'Lecacaset' micro-satellite will be deployed to understand the twin system.

The satellite will gather important information in addition to images of collisions between spacecraft and asteroids. The collision will measure the hole made on the asteroid. All information will then be sent to Earth. According to a scientific estimate, this collision will cause a change of about one percent in the circulatory system of Dimorphos. Which is considered very subtle. Such changes can take weeks or even months to be measured using an optical telescope on Earth.

Another important point is that the couple orbits the sun. This orbit is likely to change by only 0.0000006% due to collisions. Observations after the collision of the dart spacecraft in 205 Dr. Andy Rivkin will take over. Dr. Andy Rivkin is serving in the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. Which is located in Laurel Maryland. The results of the DART mission will be useful to scientists to avoid future asteroid collisions. Scientists have other options available besides the 'Kinetic Impactor Technique' to get asteroids out of their way.

DART MISSION: Will it show you a way to avoid a dangerous asteroid collision?

Last Wednesday, as part of a double asteroid redirection test (DART), NASA sent a small handcart, a small spacecraft, into space on the SpaceX Falcon 2 rocket east of the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Dimorphos will collide with the asteroid Moonlet, covering a distance of more than 3 lakh kilometers. The 'Dart' space probe will visit Dimorphos and another asteroid, Dedimos, in September or October 203. The combination of two meteorites creates a binary system of twin asteroids. The asteroid twins are so small in size that even in a powerful telescope they can only be seen as a drop of light.

Astronomers determine their position by measuring changes in its light. A pair of asteroids orbiting the sun in an elliptical orbit. The orbit of which passes at a distance from the boundary of Mars and Earth. A tiny meteorite like the moon is orbiting the asteroid Didimos in the center. Whose name is 'Demorphos'. Didimos has a circumference of 200 meters. While the maximum length of Dimorphos is 150 meters. The main target of NASA's 'Dart' is a microscopic asteroid called Dimorphos. Dimorphos currently completes one orbit of Didimos asteroid in 11 hours and 2 minutes. This period is likely to decrease after the collision of the dart spacecraft.

The dart spacecraft will enter the orbit of DeMorphos in September or October 205. A camera named Draco is aligned with the Dart spacecraft. As it approaches the asteroid, it will take pictures of DeMorphos and the spacecraft. Based on this picture, the way to properly arrange the collision between the two will be determined. The dart spacecraft will then collide with the asteroid Dimorphos at a speed of 2.50 kilometers per second (6,000 kilometers per hour).