What would happen if we found an asteroid whose trajectory coincides with the Earth? This is a question that scientists and astronomers have been doing for many years, especially after seeing the film Armageddon. The ESA and NASA now have a plan to save us from extinction: arrojarles things to the asteroids.
The two space agencies are working together on a mission that will be carried out between the years 2020 and 2022, with the that will practice a new technique for deflecting asteroids that are on a trajectory that implies the possibility of colliding with the Earth. The technique has to do with sending ships at a great speed towards the asteroid and estrellarla there, with the purpose of diverting its course.
Something like throwing a ball towards another ball to change the direction in which it travels, but much more complicated (and expensive).
The mission will be conducted from two angles: the NASA with his ship DART and the THAT with AIM (Asteroid Impact Mission). These will seek to be found with a binary system of asteroids formed by an asteroid of great size, called Didymos, and another known as Didymoon that has a diameter of about 170 meters. This last will be the victim of the collision.
In the year 2020 will be launched missions to meet with Didymoon in the year 2022. The idea is that a ship american crash against this small asteroid while the european ship captures all of the time and studied the system before the collision, so as to be able to analyze and study the changes in the trajectory in Didymoon.
Although this asteroid is relatively small and could not cause a new mass extinction on the Earth, crashing into our planet could cause Tsunamis or devastate complete cities. The idea of ESA and NASA is to avoid this kind of situations, because, after all, the threat of an asteroid could be prevented if detected in time.
In the video below some of the experts THAT involved in the mission, explained in all its details. Not even Bruce Willys could this have happened. [via ESA / NASA]
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