Scientists to test Earth-saving theory by crashing into asteroid

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The joint European-U.S. effort, entitled the Asteroid Deflection and Assessment mission, will send a probe into the asteroid in an effort to test possible doomsday-stopping scenarios. But the threat is real – that is why NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are joining forces for a mission that will test a capability to deflect the course of an asteroid.

Scientists are to send two spacecraft to knock an asteroid off course, as part of a practice for what they would do if a rock was threatening the future of humanity. They are expected to reach Didymoon by May 2022.

A second spacecraft, Aim, will monitor the effect of the impact, which should reveal whether in principle a much larger asteroid headed for Earth could be deflected.

An American probe will SMASH into Didymoon – which is only 160m wide – in a bid to fire it against diamond-shaped Didymos. It is set to begin in 2020 as announced at the European Planetary Science Congress Wednesday. “The European part of the mission will study the structure of Didymoon and the orbit and rotation of the binary system, providing clues to its origin and evolution”. NASA scientists will also measure the properties of the asteroid, such as its mass and density before deploying a small lander to investigate its internal structure. AIM will analyse the plume of material ejected by the impact, and then continue with its monitoring mission to study the resulting crater and track any changes in Didymoon’s orbit. NASA and ESA plans to dislodge it from its path by slamming an unmanned spacecraft into the moon’s surface. Most asteroids are aggregates of material, rather than solid bodies, but it is not clear whether they are filled with large rocks and pockets of empty space, or gravel.

Per the ESA, Didymos will be “comparatively close” to Earth in 2022, at a distance of about 6.8 million miles; the Independent reports it came within 4.5 million miles of our planet in 2003.