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Nasa could trigger artificial meteor shower with mission to smash spacecraft into an asteroid

AN UPCOMING Nasa mission to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid may trigger an artificial meteor shower, scientists claim.

The collision will sheer debris off the space rock Didymos as it passes within 6.8million miles of Earth in 2022, some of which could reach Earth.


Pieces of the asteroid would then burn up in the atmosphere, resulting in a meteor shower across the night sky, reports the New York Times.

The mission will be carried out by The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) spacecraft in September 2022.

The $69million (£56million) project is aimed at testing Nasa's ability to deflect an apocalyptic space rock by slamming a spacecraft into it.

Dart will hit the smaller of a pair of asteroids named Didymos with the force of three tons of TNT.

The Dart spacecraft will smash into the asteroid Didymos (pictured) as it passes within 6.8million miles of Earth in 2022

Discovered in 1996, Didymos currently poses no threat to Earth but has been classified as "potentially hazardous" by Nasa.

Dart's impact threatens to create so much debris that some of it reaches Earth, according to experts at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

Writing in a new scientistific paper, they warned that fragments of material from Didymos may present a hazard to future spacecraft.

The impact could also create the first ever meteor shower resulting from human activities in space, according to the team's computer simulations.

If debris from Didymos were to rain down on our planet, it would burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere.

Scientists could use the celestial show to investigate the makeup of the asteroid by studying the colour of the streaks of light it produces.

For instance, yellow meteors would mean Didymos is made of iron, while blue ones would indicate a magnesium makeup.

Material created by the blast is expected to be no larger than a centimetre wide, according to the paper.

What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?


The debris would have to be significantly bigger to have any chance of reaching Earth's surface.

Apparently, particles created by Dart or other asteroid-ramming missions may create enough debris to hamper future space operations.

The potential impact on spacecraft should be taken into account when planning anti-asteroid missions in the coming decades, scientists said.

The research was published in The Planetary Science Journal.

Irish driver captures stunning footage of massive green 'fireball' meteor flying over Co Cork

In other news, it emerged this week that the US military is developing a secretive network of spy satellites that will one day blanket Earth's orbit.

Brits took stunning snaps of Starlink satellites passing over the UK in April.

And, Nasa astronauts will launch into space from US soil this month for the first time in nearly a decade.

What do you think of Nasa's bonkers asteroid-smashing mission? Let us know in the comments!
