| ▲ | NASA's DART spacecraft changed an asteroid's orbit around the sun(sciencenews.org) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 33 points by pseudolus 3 days ago | 14 comments | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | gatreddi 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Wild that we went from "can we even deflect an asteroid" to measurably changing a solar orbit. 150 milliseconds sounds tiny until you realize compounding over decades makes that a meaningful trajectory shift. The engineering confidence this gives for actual planetary defense is massive. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | prism56 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Interesting. I'd not considered the loss of mass as a means of propulsion. Obviously there was the kinetic energy transfer but the impact ejacted some of the asteroids mass opposite to it's trajectory further increasing it's trajectory change. Cool demonstration, hopefully not needed one day. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | yubainu 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
That's interesting news. I wonder how much kinetic energy it had. This accumulation of information might be useful if an asteroid were to hit the Earth someday. At the very least, it's more realistic than sending oil drilling experts to an asteroid. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | NooneAtAll3 25 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I'm annoyed at these nothing-burger titles... Instead of pointing out that exact measurements finally came in (of long term movement change), journalist instead focused on the obvious outcome that everyone expects and knows | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | wartywhoa23 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Well done, DART, which country did you aim it to? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | hulitu 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
> NASA's DART spacecraft changed an asteroid's orbit around the sun Captain Obvious strikes again. Is school so low quality, that someone has to write a news article about it and somebody else thinks this is worth posting on a technical forum ? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | p0w3n3d 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Wow, that's the first step! However, the most efficient method would be actually land (I know - maybe even impossible?) on it, and use propellers to change its trajectory. We don't have too much throwaway high-tech to crash it on asteroids... | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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