- Adam Driver enquired about NASA’s plan to protect Earth from an approaching meteorite.
- Although NASA has not compiled a list of every meteorite, it is known that none of them pose a danger to cities on Earth.
- To practice deflecting it, NASA spacecraft have slammed into and settled on two different asteroid bodies.
- In order to discuss ways to prevent a meteor catastrophe, Adam Driver met with NASA.
In his upcoming movie, “65,” the actor portrays a space pilot who crashes lands on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous era 65 million years ago and then learns that an asteroid is on its way, which is what caused the demise of the dinosaurs.
What if we learned that a meteorite similar to this would strike our globe today? In a film that NASA published last week, Driver inquired.
NASA astronomer Kelly Fast was fast to explain that there is no need to be concerned about such a big asteroid, or extinction-level space rock, coming close to Earth any time soon.
“The majority of those big ones have been discovered. They are simpler to find. Fewer of them exist, according to Fast, who oversees NASA’s studies of near-Earth objects. But there are still comets to be discovered that aren’t that big, but are still big enough to cause harm if they collide.
NASA is specifically looking for comets that are wider than 140 meters (460 feet). They are large enough to level an entire metropolis. 90% of those city-killers must be identified and tracked by NASA, as required by Congress, in order to make sure their trajectories do not put Earth in danger.
NASA’s job, according to Fast, would be to provide information about the asteroid, the location of the impact, and any potential consequences if one were to be found that was headed for Earth.
The organization also has the power to step in and steer such a meteorite away from Earth. The planetary security toolkit is being expanded by three NASA projects.
NASA has already used a spacecraft to smash an asteroid
The following query from Driver concerned NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which last year rammed a spacecraft into an asteroid named Dimorphos to determine whether the impact could alter its trajectory around a bigger asteroid.
A probe could give the space object just enough of a push to alter its trajectory around the sun and divert it from colliding with Earth with enough years’ warning, as was tested in this NASA experiment.
NASA has a plan in place to deflect an asteroid if it poses a threat to Earth. One method being developed is known as the Kinetic Impactor technique, which involves slamming a spacecraft into the asteroid at high speed to change its trajectory.
NASA has not yet had to use this technique in a real-world scenario, but it has already tested it in a demonstration mission called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. The DART mission aims to test the effectiveness of the Kinetic Impactor technique by slamming a spacecraft into a small asteroid called Didymos’ moon in 2022.
The goal of the DART mission is to see how much the spacecraft’s impact changes the moon’s orbit around the larger asteroid. By observing this change in orbit, scientists can better understand how effective the Kinetic Impactor technique is at deflecting an asteroid.
Overall, while NASA has not yet had to use the Kinetic Impactor technique to deflect a threatening asteroid, it is an important part of NASA’s Planetary Defense strategy, and the DART mission will help scientists learn more about its effectiveness.
NASA is studying and tracking down near-Earth asteroids
NASA is actively studying and tracking near-Earth asteroids to better understand their properties and potential impact risks. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) is responsible for coordinating efforts to detect, track, and characterize near-Earth objects (NEOs), which include asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit.
NASA uses a combination of ground-based telescopes, space-based observatories, and spacecraft missions to study NEOs. For example, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission uses an infrared telescope to detect and study NEOs, while the OSIRIS-REx mission is currently studying the asteroid Bennu up close to better understand its properties and potential impact risks.
In addition to studying NEOs, NASA is also developing plans to mitigate the potential risks of asteroid impacts. This includes developing techniques for deflecting or destroying asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth, as well as improving early warning systems to give as much notice as possible in the event of an asteroid impact threat.
Overall, NASA’s efforts to study and track near-Earth asteroids are an important part of its Planetary Defense strategy, which aims to protect Earth from potential asteroid impacts.
The NEO Surveyor infrared observatory is presently being developed with a 2026 launch date.
Driver and Fast didn’t talk about that trip, but the actor appeared to be pleased by NASA’s efforts.
“Thank you for your work in keeping the planet safe from world-ending asteroids plummeting into our planet,” Driver said.
