Nasa deflected the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos by hitting it, a historic success for planetary defense

NASA announced on Tuesday, October 11 that it had successfully deflected the trajectory of an asteroid. A historic test for the defense of our planet.

This is a major step forward in the history of mankind!

For the very first time, the trajectory of a asteroid was deflected by the impact of a NASA machine launched at full speed on the celestial body.

This event constitutes a watershed moment for planetary defense announced the head of the American space agency Bill Nelson.

Photo credit: screenshot / @NASA

A NASA spacecraft manages to deflect the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos by hitting it

Remember, at the end of September the vessel of the mission Dart had thus struck the asteroid Dimorphos, which is the satellite of an even larger asteroid, known as Didymos, with the aim of deflecting its trajectory.

This unprecedented test was therefore a success because the device of the Naa managed to move the asteroid by reducing its orbit by 32 minutes. A success that went beyond expectations.

Indeed, the test would have already been “ considered a huge success if it had only reduced the orbit by about 10 minutes “, explained Bill Nelson during a press conference. With this mission, Nasa has proven that we are serious as defenders of the planet “added the interested party.

As a reminder, the asteroid Dimorphos is about 160 meters in diameter and was about 11 million kilometers from Earth at the time of impact.