#TruthBeTold #nasa #asteroid #ass #hemorrhoid #extinction
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NASA’s planetary defense spacecraft mission (DART) has successfully altered the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos and they have determined that it will not hit the Earth. The asteroid is about 170 meters in diameter and if it hit Earth it would have caused immediate massive casualties on impact with a crater more than a mile in diameter and likely spewed dust and debris into the atmosphere effecting the climate for years.
The success of the mission means we will not have to face the same fate as the dinosaurs - - at least this time.
Here’s the full briefing:
https://youtu.be/Zhzn0U2m5wQ?t=13
(Public domain image of the Barringer Crater)
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#TruthBeTold = A statement that is logically or literally true (or partly true), but seems to imply something that isn’t true or is just plain weird. (for rhetoric, logic or propaganda studies… or just for fun)
@Pat
ROFL
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This one is 100% true, although parts of it may seem like they are not.
The asteroid was never on a collision course with Earth. This was just a test of our capability to divert asteroids. Dimorphos was chosen by NASA because it was within telescope range of Earth so as to make observation of its course change easier to determine (among other reasons). This #TruthBeTold implies that the asteroid was going to hit Earth and was prevented from doing so. If you read the #truthbetold carefully, it never explicitly says that the asteroid was going to hit Earth. However, it says, “The success of the mission means we will not have to face the same fate as the dinosaurs...”, which is true. The success of this mission means that we will be able to divert future asteroids which may actually be on a collision course with Earth.
spooiler - answer
@Pat
You said it all.
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@mc
The larger the asteroid, the further out we can detect it, and therefore the more time we have to divert it. The sooner you hit it, the more it is deflected.
But that's for asteroids in our system. A large, dense rogue planet traveling at very high speed (maybe from a system that went supernova) that arrives in our system may not be able to be deflected in time with our current detection/deflection capabilities.
Thus the "...at least this time."