Asteroid-Deflecting Missions May Need To Hit Asteroids in the Perfect Spots To Prevent Future Collisions

Asteroid-Deflecting Missions May Need To Hit Asteroids in the Perfect Spots To Prevent Future Collisions

NASA's DART mission proved we are able to change an asteroid's path by smashing a spacecraft into it, but exactly where we hit a rocky body is important

The Tiny Cosmic “Keyholes” That Could Send Asteroids Back to Earth

Deflecting an asteroid isn’t just a matter of smashing into it with a spacecraft. If the strike happens in the wrong place, it could nudge the space rock into a tiny gravitational “keyhole,” a hidden gateway that steers it back onto a collision course with Earth. Building on lessons from NASA’s DART mission, researchers are [...]

DART spacecraft’s asteroid impact informs new planetary defense strategy

When engineers at a control center in Turin, Italy, sent a faint radio signal into space, they set off a world-first experiment. The message reached NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, better known as DART, more than 5 million miles away. In response, the spacecraft released its traveling partner, a shoebox-sized satellite named LICIACube. Fifteen days later, DART deliberately collided head-on with Dimorphos, a small moon orbitin…