NASA’s groundbreaking asteroid deflection mission may soon lead to a new meteor shower hitting Earth. Scientists predict that rocky debris from this mission could create a human-made meteor shower, named the Dimorphids, expected to be visible around May 2037. The mission, which involved crashing a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos in 2022, was a pioneering attempt to alter the trajectory of a celestial body and safeguard Earth from potential future impacts.
The impact of the spacecraft released a substantial amount of boulders, debris, and small particles, some of which are now on a path to potentially collide with Earth. According to predictions, this man-made meteor shower might continue to arrive intermittently for up to 100 years.
Dr. Eloy Pena-Asensio, lead author of the study from the Polytechnic University of Milan, noted that the ejected particles could reach Mars or Earth. With speeds of 450 m/s, these particles might reach Mars in about 13 years, while faster particles traveling at 770 m/s could arrive in just seven years.
Meteor observation campaigns in the coming decades will be critical to determine if fragments of Dimorphos reach Earth. This would mark the first time a human-made meteor shower is observed, a significant milestone in space exploration.
The mission, part of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), was aimed at testing our ability to change the trajectory of potentially hazardous asteroids. The $325 million spacecraft completed its mission by colliding with Dimorphos, a body approximately the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, chosen for its minimal threat to Earth.
Early reports suggest the mission was successful, with about 1,000 tons of debris, equivalent to the load of 60 train carriages, being ejected. However, only smaller particles, which were launched at the highest speeds, are expected to reach Earth.
Typically, meteor showers occur when Earth passes through the debris field of a comet, but this will be the first instance of a meteor shower caused by human intervention. Scientists will continue to monitor the situation to assess the long-term impacts of this historic mission.