NASA might have triggered the first-ever man made meteor shower and scientists have just started to realise it. The DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft which smacked an asteroid in 2022 created tons of debris and a significant amount is now on a collision course with Earth. According to a new study accepted for publication in The Planetary Science Journal, the fragments from the destroyed asteroid Dimorphos is likely to collide with our planet in a few years.
Fortunately, these fragments are too small (between 0.001-4 inches) to cause any harm to life on Earth but will create a meteor-shower like event. The researchers even have a name for it - 'Dimorphids.
' "If these ejected Dimorphos fragments reach Earth, they will not pose any risk. Their small size and high speed will cause them to disintegrate in the atmosphere, creating a beautiful luminous streak in the sky," lead study author Eloy Peña-Asensio, an astrophysicist at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan in Italy, told Universe Today. Since the particles from the asteroid are travelling at varying speeds, they will reach Earth somewhere between seven years to over 30 years.
Apart from Earth, Mars is also likely to bear the brunt of the mission. ALSO SEE: NASA's DART Mission's Second Observer Captures Unsettling Images Of An Asteroid Crash The prediction was made using data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids or LICIACube which accompanied DART in its journey. Images gathered by LICIACube were used to make simulations of trajectories and velocities of three million fragments.
DART was launched on November 23, 2021 to test a planetary defense technology. NASA wanted to determine if deliberately crashing into an asteroid can change its trajectory, and it turns out - it can. The DART spacecraft rammed into Dimorphos, which orbits a larger rock Didymos, at a speed of 24,000 km per hour.
About one million kg of debris flew away from the asteroid after collision and NASA confirmed that Dimorphos's orbit was shortened by 32 minutes - making the mission a success. It proved that an incoming asteroid can be deflected artificially. ALSO SEE: Collision Of NASA's DART With Asteroid Dimorphos Changed Its Shape; Finding Excites Scientists.
