WASHINGTON: NASA has successfully conducted its first phase of experiments to ram a spacecraft into Earth-bound asteroids and alter their trajectory.
There are many giant meteorites orbiting in space. There is a high risk that these could hit Earth and cause massive destruction. Even recently, some giant meteors have come close to Earth. In this case, NASA, the American space research center, is involved in the experiment of changing the trajectory of the spacecraft by making the spacecraft collide with the asteroids that are coming towards the Earth. For this, it launched a spacecraft named ‘Dual Asteroid Deflection Test’ (DART) 9 months ago.
It was headed for the giant asteroid ‘Didymos’, 760 meters in circumference, orbiting 7 million miles in space. It first targeted the small planet Morphos, which orbits the asteroid. Flying at a speed of 22 kmph, the Dart spacecraft collided with it. As a result, the meteorite deviated from the orbit of the Didymos meteorite and moved into a new orbit. With this, NASA’s first phase experiment to change the trajectory of meteorites has been successful.
