DART

 

The Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) was NASA's successful test on September 26, 2022 of its plan to defend Earth from an asteroid's on collision course with our planet.

DART spacecraft zeroed in on Dimorphos, Didymos little moon which is 160 m in diameter and at a distance of 6.8 million miles or 11 million kilometers from Earth.  It stroke the little asteroid at a speed of 14,000 miles per hour hoping to divert from its orbit.

A picture of the little asteroid Dimorphos taken 2 min before the impact shows in great detail rocks on its surface.

Images from James Webb telescope showed a vast cloud of dust indicating a much larger force of the impact that it was expected.  The images were similar to those obtained by the Italian Space agency LICIAcube the little craft that separated from DART moments before its impact on Dimorphos.  NASA announced on Oct 11, 2022 DART's mission proved successful in adjusting the trajectory of Dimorphos, suggesting that a deadly space rock could be deflected in the future.  Before DART's impact it took the little asteroid 11 hours and 55 min to orbit its Didymos.  The spacecraft's impact changed the smaller asteroid's orbit by 32 min. 

Ceres

Today on March 6, 2015 the spacecraft Dawn launched by NASA in 2007 reached the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is the first mission to use ion propulsion to travel the 3 billion miles distance to Ceres.  Ceres was discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. Ceres is so large that it encompasses about one-fourth of the estimated total mass of all the asteroids in the asteroid belt. Today, it’s classified as a dwarf planet.

Ceres is the only one of Rome's many agricultural deities.  The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess Demeter, whose mythology and cult was introduced in the Roman art and literature.  Ceres was credited with the discovery of wheat (Latin far), the yoking of oxen and ploughing, the sowing, protection and nourishing of the young seed, and the gift of agriculture to humankind.

As much of Rome's grain was imported from territories of Magna Graecia, Romans considered Sicily as Ceres' "earthly home".  From the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter's temple at Enna, served both deities and was considered as Ceres' oldest, and most important cult center.