Asteroids could potentially wipe out the human race, that is why NASA is sending out a rocket to collide with an asteroid as part of our planetary defence plan.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, known as DART, is due to deliberately collide with the asteroid Dimorphos – which is about the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
An asteroid that size crashing into the Pacific Ocean could generate monster sized tsunamis, enough to wipe out much of the Pacific Islands.
“This is an Armageddon, Deep Impact and Don’t Look Up all rolled into one,” said Glen Nagle, spokesman for the CSIRO-managed Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.
“We do want to have a better chance than the dinosaurs had 65 million years ago.”
Dimorphos poses no risk to Earth, so a failed mission wouldn’t mean that our planet is in any danger.
But by smashing DART into the asteroid, scientists are hoping to alter its speed by a factor of 1%, which is enough to change its orbit.
DART is a test of NASA’s planetary defence plans. The hope is that an asteroid at risk of striking the Earth could be diverted by hitting it with a spacecraft.
News Desk with SMH.com.au