More than 3 million pieces of debris generated by the asteroid deflected by NASA are heading towards Earth!

In September 2022, the Dart mission entered into a scheduled collision with Dimorphos, a small moonmoon in orbitorbit around the asteroid Didymos. Its goal: to demonstrate that humanity is capable of deflecting the trajectory of a celestial object threatening our Earth. And the mission was nicely accomplished.

A shower of shooting stars from the debris of Dimorphos

But it left traces. Debris that could cross paths with our planet in the future. Simulations that an international team of researchers presents in The Planetary Science Journal show that the rocks ejected during the impact of DartDart on theasteroidasteroidno less than 3 million objects from 30 micrometersmicrometers 10 centimeters in diameter, should reach Earth within thirty years.

Is there a risk? Only that of being amazed by a shower of shooting stars of a completely new kind. Not due to dust left by a cometcomet passing through, but a rain ofshooting starsshooting stars indeed created by human action. The researchers announce that the “Dimorphides” should be visible mainly from the Southern Hemisphere by 2055 and mainly during the month of May.