China has pick out a small , near - Earth asteroid as the butt for an coming mission that will help it organize against future threats of incoming space rocks .
The mission is targeting asteroid2019 VL5 , a small aim that ’s about 108 foot ( 33 meters ) in diam and orb the Sun every 365 days , bringing it in close proximity to Earth . Chen Qi from China ’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory revealed the planetal defense mission ’s object during a presentation at the eighth IAA Planetary Defense Conference in Vienna , Austria last week , consort toSpaceNews .
The impactor ballistic capsule will smash into the small asteroid , hoping to deviate its trajectory by 1 to 2 in ( 3 to 5 centimetre ) . ab initio , the divergence seems unimportant , but over sentence it could increase to 620 miles ( 1,000 kilometre ) within three months , accord to Wu .
An illustration of a near-Earth asteroid.Illustration: NASA
China ’s planetal defense test is similar toNASA ’s DART delegation , which slammed into an asteroid in September 2022 and successfully altered its trajectory . DART targeted a binary asteroid system , collide with Dimorphos , a 525 - foot - wide ( 160 - meter ) asteroid that orbits a larger space careen . However , China ’s mission is aiming for a much littler asteroid , while sending two space vehicle after it instead .
The Chinese space agencyannouncedits asteroid dash mission last year , revealing the country ’s plans to craft an intact world defense organisation that includes get across near - Earth objects , gather up meteorites , and developing divagation technologies . “ There ’s also short gain for everyone to vie on this front because we are look an extraterrestrial menace , ” Ye Quanzhi , an astronomer and research scientist at the University of Maryland , toldThe Planetary Society . “ So I think China ’s likely issue as a new player can open up up possibilities for collaborations . ”
China ’s space program is competing with the U.S. on most fronts , including make a sustained presence on the lunar surface . When it comes to planetary defence , however , perhaps the two countries can link forces against a mutual threat .
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