– We all have a responsibility to protect our planet. After all, it’s the only planet we have. This mission shows that NASA is trying to prepare for whatever the universe may throw at us. NASA has proven that it should be taken seriously as a protector of the planet. This is a turning point for all of humanity in planetary defense technology. This shows the commitment of NASA and our partners around the world, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Before the DART mission, the asteroid Dimorphos orbited the asteroid Didymos in 11 hours and 55 minutes. The purpose of the test was to move Dimorphos into a tighter orbit so that it would orbit Didymos in 10 minutes less. The minimum necessary to announce the success of the mission was the reduction of the circulation time by 73 seconds. After 2 weeks of data collection, NASA said Dimorphos now orbits Didymos in 11 hours and 23 minutes. The circulation time was therefore reduced by 32 minutes. The margin of uncertainty is plus or minus 2 minutes.

See also: Historic success of NASA. A powerful asteroid impact

– Every day we receive and analyze new data. Thanks to this, astronomers will be able to better assess if and how in the future, missions similar to DART will be able to protect the Earth from an asteroid which will be heading straight for us – says Lori Glaze, director of the division of planetary sciences of the Nasa.

Currently, specialists are focusing on analyzing the efficiency of momentum transfer from the DART vehicle to the asteroid. It must be remembered that the vehicle was millions of times lighter than an asteroid. However, he hit it with an incredible speed of over 22.5 thousand. km per hour The asteroid impact kicked up tons of material, forming a long tail behind it that stretched for thousands of miles. It is the analysis of this flow of debris material that makes it possible to study both the impact effects and the structure of the asteroid itself.

“DART has given us fascinating data on both the properties of the asteroid and the effectiveness of the kinetic impactor as a defense for the planet,” said Nancy Chabot of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Scientists will continue to study the Dimorphos-Didymos system with ground-based telescopes and analyze images from the LICIACube vehicle, which photographed the effects of the impact. In four years, the Hera mission should start, which will carefully examine the two asteroids.