Unmanned NASA spacecraft launched towards Dimorphos
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.
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.
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by frank_one
(Post 1912731)
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
Quote:
Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie
(Post 1912732)
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.
