The remains of an asteroid deflected by NASA could reach our planet in the next decade, according to a study.
The research team ran simulations that tracked 3 million particles of debris from the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which collided a spacecraft with the asteroid Dimorphos in 2022.
NASA launched the mission as a test to deflect an asteroid that would destroy Earth in the future.
The DART mission was a success, but simulations showed that the resulting debris could one day reach Mars and the Earth-Moon system in the form of meteorites.
The asteroid Dimorphos as seen by the DART space probe 11 seconds before impact. Scientists are now simulating what could happen to the debris produced by the collision.
If these meteorites reach Earth, they will not pose any threat to our planet.
Their small size and high speed will cause them to burn up in the atmosphere, creating “a beautiful luminous trail in the sky,” according to Eloy Peña-Asensio, a researcher at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and lead author of the study.
The study appeared online as a prepresswhich means it has not been reviewed by other scientists, but has been accepted for publication by The Planetary Science Journal.
DART launched from California in November 2021 and finally completed its 10-month journey when it collided with the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022.
Dimorphos, about 170 meters in diameter, orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, both located about 10.9 million kilometers from our planet.
DART hit the space rock at more than 14,000 miles per hour and was destroyed on impact, while Dimorphos received a “little nudge” meant to alter its trajectory by a fraction.
The mission demonstrated that the kinetic impactor technique (which involves deliberately ramming a spacecraft into an asteroid) is an effective way to alter an asteroid’s trajectory.
In the event that a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) were headed toward Earth, NASA could one day use this technique to save our planet.
But scientists are still studying the consequences of DART to ensure NASA can do so safely.
That’s why an international team of researchers wanted to find out where the ejected debris – the rubble produced when DART collided with Dimorphos – might end up.
The team relied on data collected by the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), a spacecraft equipped with cameras that accompanied and documented the kinetic impact test.
The last complete image DART took of the asteroid Dimorphos before it crashed into the asteroid. Scientists say debris from the impact could reach Earth in as little as seven years.
Based on the LICIACube observations, researchers used supercomputers at NASA’s Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF). to simulate what might happen to the ejected material.
The debris fragments the team analyzed are small, ranging in size from 30 micrometers to 10 centimeters.
The results showed that some of the debris could reach Earth within a decade, depending on how fast it moved after impact.
For example, debris traveling faster than 3,355 mph could reach Earth in about seven years.
But it will likely be up to 30 years before any of this debris is observed on Earth, the simulations indicated.
“These faster particles are expected to be too small to produce visible meteors, based on early observations,” Peña-Asensio said. The universe today.
‘However, ongoing meteor observation campaigns will be critical to determining whether DART has created a new (man-made) meteor shower: the dimorphids.’