00:03There are over 30,000 space rocks hurtling through near-Earth space, according to the European Space
00:10Agency. And if we don't want to go the way of the dinos someday, we may have to take matters
00:15into our own hands. That was the general idea behind NASA's DART mission, which after years
00:21of careful planning, tested humanity's ability to deflect an asteroid with a spacecraft in September
00:27of 2022. As Science Alert reports, the data is in and the results appear better than expected.
00:36According to research from Northern Arizona University, asteroid Dimorphis, target of the
00:42DART mission, was shifted from its 12-hour orbit of larger asteroid Didymus by a total of 33 minutes,
00:49a much larger change than NASA's projected seven-minute alteration to its orbit.
00:54Studying material ejected from the asteroid after impact, the Planetary Science Institute
01:00found that Dimorphis ejected twin tails of dust, like a dry comet. A study by SETI found that the
01:07asteroid lost 0.3 to 0.5 percent of its total mass, based on the brightness of the light reflecting
01:14off its surface, with the ejected debris accounting for most of the change in its orbit, transferring
01:20even more momentum than the collision itself, per John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
01:26The findings, which suggest the means to deflect asteroids are within humanity's grasp,
01:31were published across a series of five papers in the journal Nature. Thankfully, no known
01:37asteroids will endanger our planet for another 100 years. Hopefully by then, with enough reconnaissance,
01:43the evidence will be ready.
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