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Lorjack t1_iqy3vtd wrote

Reply to comment by TransposingJons in After DART: Using the first full-scale test of a kinetic impactor to inform a future planetary defense mission by EricFromOuterSpace

I was thinking what if this mission of theirs went so wrong that is changed the trajectory of that asteroid to actually hit earth instead, oh the irony. But I'm sure they thought of that and there was no risk of that actually happening haha

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Background_Daikon992 t1_iqy5cox wrote

The one they impacted wasn't a near-earth asteroid, for that very reason.

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Bensemus t1_iqzo165 wrote

Not really. The main reason they hit this asteroid was because it was a binary pair. This makes is way easier to measure the tiny change in orbit.

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