How DART Planetary Defense Test Aims to Save the Planet - The Cosmic Companion 7 October 2021
Earth faces constant threat from asteroids and comets racing through space. NASA's DART spacecraft aims to deflect one... literally. Humans 1, Dinosaurs 0.
Testing DART planetary defense systems which could save Earth from an incoming asteroid, because… dinosaurs.
For 165 million years, dinosaurs ruled the Earth — 660 times longer than the amount of time which has elapsed since the birth of the world’s first true human being. From the chicken-sized Anchiornis huxleyi to the mighty Titanosaur stretching more than 30 meters (100 feet) long, these creatures dominated the landscape of our planet in the ancient past.
Roughly 66 million years ago, however, a massive asteroid the size of Mount Everest impacted Earth, ending the age of dinosaurs. Without a space program to protect them, dinosaurs never saw doomsday headed their way.
Today, crews around the world, including researchers at NASA, aim to make sure humans don’t meet the same fate as our reptilian predecessors.
The first step: NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.
read more: https://bit.ly/DART-Planetary-Defense
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