Once the spacecraft hit the surface, it was obliterated, and its stream of pictures stopped. Astronomers got their first good look at it in the final moments of the mission, as the DART spacecraft drew ever closer, sending back images of a gray, egg-shaped asteroid strewn with rubble. The journal published a study detailing the results this week, alongside four additional scientific reports on this unprecedented asteroid deflection experiment.ĭimorphos is millions of miles away and about the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The collision altered the path of Dimorphos through space, shortening the time it takes to orbit another, larger asteroid by 33 minutes, according a new analysis in the journal Nature. The experiment has boosted scientists' confidence, he says, that this kind of deflection technique could really work to protect the planet if Earth ever got menaced by a dangerous incoming space rock. "We know this process is really very effective – it's even more effective than a lot of people had originally expected," says Andy Cheng with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Since the app gets twice-daily updates, you can be confident that any new discoveries will show up as soon as NASA calculates their orbits.Astronomers are still watching that asteroid that NASA whacked with a spacecraft back in September, in the first-ever test of whether an asteroid could be deliberately pushed off-course.Īlmost immediately after NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission sent a golf cart-sized spacecraft crashing into an asteroid called Dimorphos, scientists hailed it as a huge success – and a powerful demonstration that an asteroid's trajectory can be altered. It works great in both Safari and Google Chrome under iOS 15.2, with full support for pinch to zoom and dragging the 3D view around. What Browsers Support This Spacefaring Voyage?Īccording to NASA, you can use Eyes on Asteroids on any smartphone, tablet, or computer with an internet connection. You can also scrub along the timeline at the bottom to move backwards and forwards in time. In the live view, you can see the most current information about Near Earth Objects (NEOs). “Every NEO can be found inside the app, as can most of the spacecraft that have visited these objects.” “We wanted Eyes on Asteroids to be as user-friendly as possible while telling the stories about humanity’s exploration of these fascinating objects,” said Jason Craig, technical producer of the Visualization Technology Applications and Development team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which developed Eyes. This gives you a deeper dive into what asteroids are, what makes for a “close approach,” and more. The Eyes on Asteroids app also offers a “Learn” feature. As of this writing, asteroid 2021 WV1 will come within 557,448 km of Earth in a bit more than 3 hours. Features of Eyes on AsteroidsĪ special “Asteroid Watch” function gives you the next five closest approaches to Earth. Within the web app, you can zoom in or out, choose which layers to view, or filter what you see. You’ll see that object’s close-up image along with a short summary of its history. When you find an object you want to know more about, just click or tap on it. By default, your 3D view has our Sun at the center with the orbits of planets shown in different colors. Twice each day, NASA will update its new Eyes on Asteroids web app with the latest data on asteroids, comets, and spacecraft near our own planet, Earth. Through a web-based app, NASA is letting you explore a 3D view of objects in our orbital neighborhood. This program is, of course, a bit more far-reaching than just who’s cruising down your street though. There's a new neighborhood watch available, courtesy of NASA.
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