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View Full Version : Unmanned NASA spacecraft launched towards Dimorphos

Original TMNT Cartoon Fan
11-26-2021, 06:30 AM
On Wednesday, 24 November 2021, NASA launched unmanned spacecraft Dart from the Vandenberg Spaceport in California, United States of America.

In September 2022, it is planned to crash into Dimorphos, a natural satellite of minor planet Didymos. This will learn us more about preventing a sizeable space rock or object from hitting Earth.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59327293

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In the 1998 movie Armageddon, a nuclear bomb is used to prevent such a rock from colliding with Earth. In reality, we hopefully don't need to do that.

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Andrew NDB
11-26-2021, 06:40 AM
Admit it. You cried in Armageddon. I did.
frank_one
11-26-2021, 08:22 AM
Didymos is not a "minor planet", it is an asteroid.
MsMarvelDuckie
11-26-2021, 08:41 AM
Didymos is not a "minor planet", it is an asteroid.


I believe its size technically qualifies it as a planetoid, which would make it a "minor planet". Ceres is another such. It's big enough to have a name AND its own satellite, after all!
Original TMNT Cartoon Fan
11-26-2021, 09:44 AM
I believe its size technically qualifies it as a planetoid, which would make it a "minor planet". Ceres is another such. It's big enough to have a name AND its own satellite, after all!

Asteroid and planetoids are both subclasses of minor planets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_planet
Andrew NDB
11-26-2021, 03:16 PM
Asteroid and planetoids are both subclasses of minor planets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_planet

Semantics. It's like calling a pebble a "small boulder."
oldmanwinters
11-26-2021, 06:15 PM
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwINwm5iH2Y
MsMarvelDuckie
11-27-2021, 08:32 AM
Asteroid and planetoids are both subclasses of minor planets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_planet


That was kind of my point. "Minor planet" is still a planet, especially when it has a moon.