One shot, one nudge

[Mtneer]

World's longest shot, 7 million miles. NASA scores a bullseye. The final 30-second bullet-eye view was pretty cool.

[flogger]

Like a 43k mph mile impact! Nice job NASA.

Can't wait to see the images, love that stuff

[theGinsue]

For those of us not in the know, would someone care to elaborate on what you're discussing?

[eddiememphis]

That's tactical, bro

[eddiememphis]

For those of us not in the know, would someone care to elaborate on what you're discussing?

They shot a missile at an asteroid.

https://www.space.com/nasa-dart-asteroid-impact-planetary-defense-success

[Ah Pook]

For those of us not in the know, would someone care to elaborate on what you're discussing?

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/5016218_700bwp.webp

Same here.

[ray1970]

They shot a missile at an asteroid.


So we won?t be sending Bruce Willis up to save us?

[hollohas]

So did it work?

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

One down, a billion to go…..

[BushMasterBoy]

If it don't work, they will send me. I'm gonna be an astronut...

[clodhopper]

So did it work?

As I understand it, it will take like a month to know if it had any appreciable effect.

[hollohas]

Seems like if they sent something bigger they'd get better data. A golf cart sized probe is going to be such a tiny effect. Like a bird hitting the side of a plane.

[O2HeN2]

For those of us not in the know, would someone care to elaborate on what you're discussing?


Seems like if they sent something bigger they'd get better data. A golf cart sized probe is going to be such a tiny effect. Like a bird hitting the side of a plane.

[All numbers below rounded]

Didymos and Dimorphos is a binary asteroid system (asteroid with a small moon) where 600' Dimorphos orbits 2600' Didymos about once every 12 hours.

Dimorphos was chosen for this experiment because of its relatively low mass and slow orbital velocity would yield data on the efficacy of a kinetic energy approach to asteroid defection.

It's estimated that the orbit period will change by about 15 minutes if everyone's SWAGs were correct, which, in cases like this, are rarely the case.

The theory being tested is that even something seemingly insignificant "Like a bird hitting the side of a plane" - if done in space and far enough away - can change an asteroid's path as it crosses Earth orbit by tens of thousands of miles, turning an extinction event into a miss.

O2

[BladesNBarrels]

......
The theory being tested is that even something seemingly insignificant "Like a bird hitting the side of a plane" - if done in space and far enough away - can change an asteroid's path as it crosses Earth orbit by tens of thousands of miles, turning an extinction event into a miss.

O2

And, if we can survive our own stupidity, people 100-1000 years from now might be saying
Dang, sure glad those idiots in the 21st Century explored the possibilities of potential asteroid hits on the earth.

https://i.imgur.com/tOPwLHM.jpg

[Gman]

Watching Idiocracy becoming a reality, I'm thinking maybe we deserve an extinction event.

[Clint45]

As I understand it, it will take like a month to know if it had any appreciable effect.

They should know within a few days. Basically they're just seeing if it shifted the orbit a small amount through the velocity of impact alone. That moonlet is probably solid iron and the probe would've practically atomized on impact.

[eddiememphis]

The technology in 1000 years will seen as magical to us as our would be to some galoot from 1022.