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Europe is developing a project to support NASA
FRÁNCFORT (EFE) .- Scientists agree that the smallest asteroids are the most dangerous and those who need the most be better monitored and detected to avoid an impact on the Earth
This is one of the conclusions reached by scientists around the world gathered in Luxembourg, on the occasion of the Day of the asteroid, which is celebrated today.
Another conclusion emphasizes the importance of For this, it is necessary to develop missions that detect and track asteroids and ultimately, divert them from their trajectory if they pose a threat to our planet.
Therefore, the European Space Agency (ESA) will ask the Council of Ministers December 2019 for the approval of the mission Hera, whose cost is 289 million dollars.
Among his goals, Hera would measure the result of a previous NASA mission, the DART (Reorientation Test of a Dual Asteroid), which in October 2022 aims to divert the asyroid to two bodies of Didyma, whose current trajectory would lead him to spend this year only 11 million kilometers from the Earth.
Hera project director Ian Carnelli said that "the mission will complete the US mission, it is a unique opportunity to complete the experience and international collaboration".
This is also the first mission towards a binary asteroid – two bodies – and the European contribution to a great Earth defense experiment.
The Didymos binary system consists of two bodies: Didymain, 780 meters in diameter and the size of a mountain, and Didymoon, a moon of 160 meters, the size
The collision of the mission of the NASA will change the speed of the moon in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of 1%, which can be measured with telescopes of the Earth.
DART will have an impact on Didymos's moon 1.5 meters from the center and slow its orbital period of 12 hours in just 5 minutes, or 0.5 millimeters per second, a very small amount but enough to change its speed , distract him and stop him from reaching the Earth, said Carnelli.
The aerospace engineer added that these data are theoretical, in theory, but that when the experiment will be performed, a crater will be created. It will release material, and thus the slowdown in the orbit could be bigger.
With this project, NASA wants to demonstrate that the Earth can be protected from the future impacts of asteroids and for this DART will intercept the Didymos moon early October from 2022.
ESA wants to arrive at this asteroid four years later, in 2026, to measure how much the asteroid has moved, its physical dynamics, its properties and make high-resolution images. "The smallest asteroid is the most dangerous because it reflects less light and less light and, although today, there is no threat to the crater. " population, when it exists, there will be no time to do anything and so it is important to prevent it. "
Most asteroids orbiting the belt between Jupiter and Mars, known as asteroids, but some have entered the interior
These are the dangerous ones and those who, according to experts, deserve the
The Hera Mission, which takes its name from the Greek goddess of marriage and which ESA will propose in more detail in March of next year, it had a predecessor AIM (Impact Mission Against an Asteroid) and Don Quixote to investigate how an asteroid could be hijacked if necessary, whose main contractor was the Spanish company Deimos Space, which has not advanced for budgetary reasons.
"A 160-meter asteroid, like Didymos's moon, represents a greater threat and would create damage regardless of its fall, probably in the water, creating a tsunami. It could destroy a city like Madrid or Paris or a bigger one and people would die, "according to Carnelli. EFE
The mission More details
The collision of the DART mission will change the speed of the moon in the orbit of Didymos.
Detour
DART will strike Didymos' moon 1.5 meters from the center and decelerate its orbital period 0.5 millimeters per second, enough to change its speed, deflect it and prevent it from reaching Earth.
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