NASA Mission Debris Could Trigger First Human-Made Meteor Shower for Up to a Century
A NASA mission may lead to the first human-made meteor shower as a result of over 2 million pounds of rocky debris. In September 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) deliberately crashed into a small moonlet named Dimorphos, which orbits the asteroid Didymos, to evaluate a method for deflecting asteroids.
Scientists estimate that this impact generated more than 2 million pounds of rocks and dust. A recent study suggests that fragments from Dimorphos could eventually enter the orbits of Earth and Mars within the next 10 to 30 years, potentially causing meteor showers that might last up to a century.