NASA has just premieredPlanetary Defenders , a absorbing documentary look at the high - stakes work geared toward protect Earth from large asteroids espy come our way .
The 75 - instant production ( above ) features the stargazer and scientists who are working tirelessly to distinguish and monitor asteroids considered a likely terror — including , briefly , this one that made headlinesearlier this twelvemonth .
Planetary Defenderscaptures “ the intricate and collaborative efforts of these unknown heroes , blending cutting off - edge science with personal taradiddle to reveal the human sprightliness behind this decisive global endeavour , ” NASA said , bring : “ Witness the drama , the challenges , and the triumphs of those on the front lines of planetary defense . ”
The documentary ’s trailershould sure as shooting be enough to quicken your appetence . It ’s full of contributors offering some pretty dramatic takes on the issue of incoming asteroid .
“ Those objects are big enough to cause what we would call truly globular desolation , meaning that they could have spherical extinction events , ” says one . “ The good newsworthiness is that we ’ve recover more than about 95 % of them . When we get down to small objects , thing that are larger than , let ’s say , about 100 meters across or so , the delineation is not so rose-colored . ”
Another helpfully points out : “ The dinosaur went out because they did n’t have a blank space program . We do have one . ”
But then someone else hit up : “ The day is come when the Earth will get impact . ”
Rest assured , some smarts thinker are tackling the outcome not only of finding potentially hazardous object , but also how we might prevent them from slamming into Earth and ruining our solar day .
An example of this telling work was NASA ’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ) , which became the first missionary work to successfully demonstrate the ability to redirect an asteroid as a method of planetal defense .
establish in 2021 , DART aim Dimorphos , a minuscule moonlet orbit the with child asteroid Didymos — neither of which posed a threat to Earth . The ballistic capsule , about the size of it of a small car , intentionally collided with Dimorphos in September 2022 , with the impactaltering Dimorphos ’ field around Didymos , proving that it is possible to change the course of an asteroid .
DART ’s winner means that humanity now has a prove , scalable applied science for asteroid refraction , and the technological base to formulate more robust planetary defense system in the hereafter . Let ’s just desire they can cop the technology before a biggie comes along .
