According to the US space agency Nasa, the first intentional collision of a spacecraft with an asteroid was a success: Nasa boss Bill Nelson said on Tuesday that the impact of the Dart probe in September had reduced the orbit of the asteroid moon Dimorphos.
While it used to take Dimorphos eleven hours and 55 minutes to orbit its big brother Didymos, it now takes eleven hours and 23 minutes. “We showed the world that NASA is a serious defender of this planet,” Nelson said.
The Dart space probe crashed into the celestial body on September 26 at a speed of more than 23,000 kilometers per hour. It was the first maneuver ever in space to test the defense against an asteroid threatening Earth. In order to steer a dangerous asteroid past the earth in an emergency, only minimal course changes would be necessary with early intervention.
NASA’s goal was to shorten Dimorphos’ orbit by up to ten minutes. This goal has now been significantly exceeded: the reduction is 32 minutes.
