The mission Dart, by which a space rocket will be deployed from the Californian base of Vandenberg, starts from Wednesday, November 24 at 06:30NASA values two fundamental criteria when classifying an asteroid as potentially dangerous hours (Spanish time).
This anti-asteroid system that aims to intentionally collide with two asteroids, Dimorphos and Didymos. The first of them is smaller than the second, whose dimensions would be equal to or larger than those of the pyramid of Giza. Although neither of the two rock fragments mentioned poses any danger for our planet, we try to prevent them from getting close at some point.
Why does NASA want to divert the trajectory of asteroids?
What is intended with the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space X company (owned by Elon Musk) is the checking if this deflection of the asteroids is a method yes cash which is useful in case, in the future, there may be an asteroid that does pose a real danger to Earth.
The NASA assesses two criteria to determine an asteroid is considered potentially dangerous. The first, the absolute magnitude (M), and the second, the minimum intersection distance between its orbit and that of the Earth. If the latter has a A value less than 0.05 astronomical units is classified as dangerous asteroids.
What danger do they pose to the Earth?
The POT did two simulations on what would happen if one of these rocky fragments collided with our planet, with some results that were catastrophic.
In two of them, It was reflected as an asteroid would destroy Europe (simulation carried out in a fictitious way), when colliding in a place located between Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Another simulation revealed that New York City was ravaged by an asteroid. In this sense, the purpose is to prepare the scientific community for such a threat.
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