Planetary Defense
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Roman Space Telescope Was Built to Hunt Dark Energy — It Could Also Catch City-Killer Asteroids
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, initially designed to study dark energy and dark matter, is being proposed as a tool for detecting city-killer asteroids. Its wide-field infrared camera can identify smaller asteroids, complementing instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming NEO Surveyor. While not its primary mission, Roman's capabilities could significantly enhance planetary defense efforts by identifying and tracking potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.
NASA's DART spacecraft changed a binary asteroid's orbit around the sun, in a first for a human-made object
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully altered the orbit of the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos around its parent asteroid, Didymos, and consequently, the binary system's orbit around the sun. This marks the first time a human-made object has measurably changed the path of a celestial body's orbit around the sun, offering a promising demonstration for planetary defense strategies.