(ORDO NEWS) — NASA at the end of June gave its official name to an asteroid with a diameter of only 160 meters. So small celestial bodies are honored with such an honor in exceptional cases, usually being satisfied with the symbol on cosmos.
The asteroid Dimorphous is unique in that it was chosen for the mission, which until then was carried out only in science fiction films.
In July 2021, the DART aircraft will start, which will be faced with an asteroid in 11 million kilometers from Earth in September 2022. Ground-based telescopes will track the immediate effects of the collision, and in 2024 the European Space Agency will send a Hera probe to Dimorphous to evaluate the results of the experiment directly in the field.
Despite the fact that Dimorphous does not threaten the Earth, its proximity to our planet makes it an ideal testing ground for testing technologies to prevent danger from asteroids in the future, ”commented on the project at NASA.
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