In late 2022, NASA celebrated its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) as a massive success, a proof of concept for saving humanity in case a similar space rock were to ever head straight for Earth. The small spacecraft smashed into asteroid Didymos’ moonlet Dimorphos at a violent 14,000 mph, knocking it severely off course. But three years later, astronomers found …
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In 2022, NASA rammed a spacecraft into an asteroid to see if it could alter its orbital period around its parent asteroid. The mission, dubbed the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), aimed to determine whether humanity could theoretically save itself from a catastrophic asteroid impact. DART collided with Dimorphos, a small moonlet orbiting a larger asteroid called Didymos, on September …
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Earth may no longer be threatened by an impact from the asteroid 2024 YR4, but that doesn’t mean this 200-foot-wide space rock can’t still impact our lives. The asteroid, which at one point had a 1 in 43 chance of striking our planet, now has a 1 in 25 (4%) chance of hitting the moon in 2032. New research suggests …
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