‘Holy $@*%!’ Science captures behind-the-scenes reactions to asteroid-smashing mission

BALTIMORE— Second by second, as a NASA satellite hurtled toward a pile of rocks in space, scientists gathered at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University issued their unfiltered analysis. “It doesn’t look like any asteroid I’ve ever seen!” “That’s totally a rubble pile—I knew it!” “Holy shit!” In the final moments of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), researchers who had spent years designing and simulating the spacecraft’s collision with the moon of a larger asteroid were glued to the TV. They greeted each new image with heartier applause. Then, the screen flashed bright red as the satellite lost signal on impact. The scientists’ tear-stained cheeks lit up with reflected light, and the crowd erupted. A bouquet of fireworks sprouted from behind the building. Humanity’s first-ever planetary defense test—which could one day help scientists deflect an asteroid on a collision course with our planet—was, quite literally, a smashing success. Some in the room were simply dumbfounded. “I’m stumped,” says Jessica Sunshine, a planetary scientist at the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, and DART investigator. “We knew it was going to be exciting, and I thought it was going to work, but nobody could have predicted that.” Though measurements from the impact will keep scientists busy for months to come, one early surprise came from DART’s images of the double-ast...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news