NASA crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid tonight

[astrochex]

Very cool. Too bad there was not a video feed from another source to show the impact.

They should already already be able to tell if the asteroid path has changed.

[HobieMarty]

I watched it on a live Fox News channel on YouTube, there was real time video as Dart got closer to impact. You could really see the make up of material that the asteroid was made of. Pretty neat stuff, but, not in the loop so, what is the goal here?

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[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by HobieMarty

I watched it on a live Fox News channel on YouTube, there was real time video as Dart got closer to impact. You could really see the make up of material that the asteroid was made of. Pretty neat stuff, but, not in the loop so, what is the goal here?

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They want to see if they can knock it slightly off course. If so, by how much.

They want the ability to hit a future killer asteroid and deflect it slightly so it misses earth.

[flatbutt]

Telescopes are studying the impact and will determine if the orbit of the smaller body has changed.

[Crowbob]

Nice shot!

Now let’s see ‘em do it with iron sights…

[HobieMarty]

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

They want to see if they can knock it slightly off course. If so, by how much.



They want the ability to hit a future killer asteroid and deflect it slightly so it misses earth.

Thank you for the explanation.

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[KFC911]

837 watching the live feed right now.... they're late to the "big show"....

Any word yet.... did it move the 'stroid?

[fisher22]

As the post-crash data is analyzed, we have an observation of a Comet-like tail of debris following the asteroid. 6200 miles long!

“After DART crash, asteroid Dimorphos sports a tail of debris thousands of miles long”
https://www.space.com/dart-asteroid-impact-debris-tail-photo

[unclebilly]

So here’s a question… this was quite a ways a way… and they were able to predict (pinpoint) its exact trajectory years ago when they started planning for this.

Tell me again how we have the potential for an unexpected impact from an asteroid… seems like these things are pretty well mapped out. Seems like we would know years in advance if we were in danger.

Are there rogue asteroids? I’m asking because I don’t know.

[Heel n Toe]

There may be comets or asteroids headed for impact that "gubmint" knows can't be stopped or deflected. And in that case they may want to keep it under wraps to prevent a complete chaotic societal breakdown.

A fun tongue-in-cheek watch, but it will tickle your brain with what ifs:

[fisher22]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Are there rogue asteroids? I’m asking because I don’t know.

Asteroids or comets that have a predictable repeated orbit around our Sun, however elongated or elliptical, are well mapped. They have good regularity of travel that can be fairly accurately predicted.
The ‘rogue’ asteroids you mention would be the ones that simply pass through our solar system from wherever, to wherever. Or, if they do actually orbit our Sun, their period and shape of orbit is so large that we haven’t seen a full orbit yet, thus can’t predict their travel.

And check out this graphic showing the difference. The 2 asteroid belts within our solar system generally are not a threat because they stay (mostly) in their respective orbits. That matter never formed a planet.

[Racerbvd]

[cassisrot]

I hope it isn’t pissed.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

So here’s a question… this was quite a ways a way… and they were able to predict (pinpoint) its exact trajectory years ago when they started planning for this.

Tell me again how we have the potential for an unexpected impact from an asteroid… seems like these things are pretty well mapped out. Seems like we would know years in advance if we were in danger.

Are there rogue asteroids? I’m asking because I don’t know.

MOST asteroids are completely unknown to us. We discover new ones daily, but that's a drop in the bucket.

When we do discover one, it takes several (10, 15, 20) observations of it across a decent percentage of it's orbit to get the parameters accurate enough to track the future path for the next several dozen years.

The ones of concern are the unknown ones, which are coming towards us within the next orbit or two, or even directly at us. We would have months, maybe 24 months at BEST, 6 months at worst to try to get enough data to pinpoint the path. Even then, we're in an uncertainty cone (like a hurricane), and you see how much that can change.

As for the secret government asteroids...the orbital data on interplanetary stuff is public domain, and maintained at the Minor Planet Center. Anyone can send in data points, and anyone can mine the data openly. A single observation wouldn't give you any orbital data at all (you need at least 3 separate observations to even BEGIN to calculate rough orbits), any and all independent astronomers who discover a new asteroid that night would have to consider any data warranted to secretly calling their congressperson instead of the MPC.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

LOL.... Didn't work either..... "Beep, beeps" are still being detected!

[fisher22]

Smashing Success! Congratulations NASA.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/10/11/nasa-dart-mission-asteroid-success/

[pwd72s]

Thanks for the update & link. So far, so good...

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

There may be comets or asteroids headed for impact that "gubmint" knows can't be stopped or deflected. And in that case they may want to keep it under wraps to prevent a complete chaotic societal breakdown.

A fun tongue-in-cheek watch, but it will tickle your brain with what ifs:

That is "just a movie" as realistic as James Bond, or X-men. Lots of amateurs in back yards all over the world look for them. The comet that struck Jupiter was found by non professionals. Shoemaker-Levy 9 is named for them.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/how-historic-jupiter-comet-impact-led-to-planetary-defense

It was the wake up call to NASA that it could happen to Earth.

[Steve Carlton]

We should just develop earth-based deflectors.

[astrochex]

That ejecta photo in fisher22’s link is cool.