The European Space Agency (ESA) will go with the NASA DART spacecraft which is supposed to collide with the sun-bleached surface that’s full of rocks in an effort to actually find if the asteroid can be deflected from its journey around the Earth.
Astrophysicist Brian May said that if they are going to find this kind of possibility, it’s going to be hard. If it’s possible to deflect Didymos, they would have their target of 160-metre-wide, and across millions of km of a void.
But can they actually stop an asteroid from hitting the planet Earth? Because dinosaurs couldn’t. But humans have science on their side.
Brian May then proceeded to say: “Imagine a rock the size of a mountain with another rock the size of the great pyramid at Giza swinging around it.” Hera – this incredible spacecraft – will show us some things that we have never seen. It will be the first-ever spacecraft that will visit a double asteroid.
Can we deflect such an asteroid from hitting us?
This is actually the first step in helping ESA to see if they can deflect such an asteroid on its way on hitting planet Earth. The mission will come as a revolutionary aspect when it comes to understanding asteroids and how we can protect ourselves from them. This entire thing is crucial for saving our planet.
First of all, NASA will crash its DART spacecraft into the smaller asteroid, which is known as Didymoon. This will happen before ESA’s Hera will measure the mass of the asteroid and would see the impact it could have on Earth. Hera will carry two CubeSats on its board, and it will be able to fly much closer to the asteroid’s surface.
The close-up observations from Hera will turn the asteroid deflection into an excellent defense technique.
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