Do you remember when NASA intentionally slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid a couple of years ago?
Well, the rocky debris blasted away from the tiny asteroid Dimorphos is now expected to result in the first human-made meteor shower known as the Dimorphids.
Back in 2022, NASA executed the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission to assess whether an asteroid could be deflected on to a new course, in the name of planetary defense. NASA wanted to see whether a kinetic impact - such as crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid at 13,645 miles per hour (6.1 kilometers per second) - would be enough to change the motion of a celestial object in space.
Neither Dimorphos or the large parent space rock it orbits, known as Didymos, pose a danger to Earth. Still, the double-asteroid system was a perfect target to test deflection technology because Dimorphos' size is comparable to asteroids that could threaten our planet.
Astronomers have used ground-based telescopes to monitor the impact's aftermath for nearly two years, and they determined that the DART spacecraft did successfully change the way Dimorphos moves.
But scientists also estimate the successful, intentional collision generated more than 2 million pounds (nearly 1 million kilograms) of rocks and dust - enough to fill about six or seven rail cars. Where exactly in space all of that material will end up has remained an open question.
Now, new research (published in the Planetary Science Journal) suggests fragments of Dimorphos will arrive in the vicinity of Earth and Mars within one to three decades. Small debris could also reach Earth's atmosphere within the next 10 years, producing visible meteors (commonly called shooting stars).
"Once the first particles reach Mars or Earth, they could continue to arrive intermittently and periodically for at least the next 100 years, which is the duration of our calculations," said lead study author Eloy Peña Asensio.