Planetary defense test deflected an asteroid but unleashed a boulder swarm::A UCLA-led study of NASA’s DART mission determined that the strategy presents previously unanticipated risks.
Planetary defense test deflected an asteroid but unleashed a boulder swarm::A UCLA-led study of NASA’s DART mission determined that the strategy presents previously unanticipated risks.
Somehow, I found the lead scientist’s statement and the associated news to be click-baiting. Right, you crash something into a composite rock, and expect no ejecta from it. That’s pretty freaking believable. That’s like, the most basic physics you can expect from it. This is just to grab your attention so we can get more funding (which they may deserve, even if this is irritating), folks.
Wasn’t it boulders like laying around on the asteroid? Held there by microgravity, and thus knocked in all directions at the impact?
I mean debris from the impact, yes, “boulders” laying around, no I didn’t expect that :-)
OK. Then. I guess the summary would be like, the asteroid was more loose than we though, and we had no idea how the boulders got ejected from the surface because our impact.