(KNSI) – Local scientists say a recent NASA mission was a success and could one day save the planet from a killer asteroid.
Earlier this week, the space agency used a satellite to hit a rock orbiting an asteroid about seven million miles from earth. Saint Cloud State University Assistant Professor Rachel Humphrey says the satellite used for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test was launched ten months before making an impact.
“That is a tremendous amount of precision that is needed in order to get that degree of accuracy. And so that was a huge triumph.”
She talked about what we learned from the experiment.
“The intention was to move this object out of its current orbit in order to see if that kind of technology would work.”
The satellite was about the size of a golf cart, and the rock was about the size of one and a half football fields. She says the next step would be to see if multiple projectiles could be launched into space if needed. Humphery says this experiment is an essential step in space exploration.
She says scientists will study the asteroid to find out if its course was changed, but ultimately, the test taught us that it is possible to hit something far into space. She says geologists at the University of Minnesota recently found a nine-square mile meteor impact crater a few hundred feet underground in Inver Grove Heights in Dakota County.
“This type of deflection, I think, is super important. I think it’s really, really important. And I know that the NASA scientists were super excited. And it’s not every day that they get to intentionally crash something on to you know, a piece of rock orbiting millions of miles away. So, this is this is really good news.”
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