All post-apocalyptic films include asteroids crashing into worlds and wreaking havoc following a series of cataclysmic waves. However, the experts at numerous reputable and well-funded space agencies, like NASA and the European Space Agency, think it’s quite likely that a sizable asteroid will strike the Earth. They therefore devised a project, known as NASA’s DART mission, to defend the Earth. The first pictures from its test space trip have just been received.
It seems that there is a remote chance that an asteroid would strike our planet, destroying it and causing the extinction of our species. Therefore, NASA scientists developed a technical hypothesis according to which an asteroid could be diverted from its intended course by striking a massive satellite travelling at a high speed of hundreds of kilometres per second, saving humanity from extinction.
Dimorphos and Didymos, the pair of asteroids, thankfully pose no threat to the planet. They were most likely chosen as the target for the DART mission’s first test because of this. Experts estimate that the Dimorphos weighs about 1000 kg, whereas its “rival,” the DART satellite, only weighs 250 kg. Additionally, it’s ironic that slamming the satellite into the big asteroid is similar to slamming a golf ball into the enormous Egyptian Pyramid. It was so intriguing to observe whether such a small thing might divert the course of a disproportionally massive