Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin Lauva and I'm Alice Irazari. Spotlight uses
a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
matter where in the world they live. A small craft flies through space.
Stars shine bright in the darkness. Two large space rocks or asteroids, floats
in the distance. One asteroid slowly circles the other. The spacecraft, called
Dart, rockets towards the smaller asteroid. Dart goes faster and faster. Soon
it is traveling at over twenty two two thousand kilometers an hour. It crashes
into the side of the asteroid. Dart blows apart. A cloud of dust
and metal flies up from the asteroid, and slowly this smaller asteroid begins to
change direction. On Earth, scientists watch the crash through the Dart's cameras.
When the camera stops, they cheer, some hug each other. It is
the first time humans have tried to move a natural object in space, and
it has worked. But the crash is much more important than this experiment.
A spacecraft like the Dart may one day save the planet from destruction. Today's
spotlight is on the Dart Project and the future of planetary defense. Asteroids are
not usually a danger to the Earth. Small asteroids enter the Earth's atmosphere every
day. Objects often hit the Earth, but they are not large enough to
do any damage. Or These asteroids fall in places where no one lives.
But asteroids come in many different sizes. Some are only a meter across,
some are larger than one kilometer. If an asteroid this big were to hit
the Earth, it would cause a lot of destruction. Eric Christiansen is a
scientist at the Catalina Sky Survey. He helps find asteroids and other objects that
could be dangerous. He spoke to the University of Arizona News about these large
asteroids. The force of an object that size would cause global problem. It
could cause plants and animals to die out. It would lift a lot of
dust and water into the atmosphere. The effect would be like a nuclear winter.
Less sunlight would reach the ground for several years. It would change the
global food supply. Even smaller asteroids are dangerous. In nineteen hundred and eight,
an asteroid fell over an area in Russia called Tunguska. Instead of hitting
the ground, it exploded in the air. Still, the asteroid did a
lot of damage. It destroyed over two thousand square kilometers of forest. Scientists
suggest the explosion was as powerful as the biggest nuclear bombs ever tested. Chuchen
was a member of the Shania Gear tribe, was in the woods when the
Tunguska asteroid fell. He spoke to I Am Souslav about his experiences. The
earth began to move and shake. The wind hit our house and pushed it
over. My body was pushed down by sticks, but my head was fine.
Then I saw a wonder. Trees were falling, the branches were on
fire. It became very bright. How can I say this? It was
as if there were a second son. My eyes were hurting. I even
closed them. It was like what the Russians call lightning. This explosion is
known as the Tunguska event. It is the biggest asteroid to hit the Earth
in recent history, but the Tunguska asteroid was not extremely big. Scientists believe
it was a about sixty five meters across. Even events like Tunguska do not
happen very often, but it is important to protect against them. Over the
years, scientists have mapped many of the large asteroids they know where they are
and they can guess where they are going. But scientists did not know if
they could change where an asteroid fell. They did not know the best way
to do it. One method scientists have discovered is called kinetic impact. A
kinetic impact would mean pushing an asteroid. Scientists would not have to push it
much. A small push in the right direction could make an asteroid avoid Earth.
The Dirt Project was the world's first try at kinetic impact. It did
not target an asteroid coming toward Earth. Instead, DART was a test.
In fact, the name DART itself stands for double Asteroid Redirection Test. The
rocket would fly toward a large asteroid called Didymus. Once it came close,
it would fly toward a smaller asteroid called Dimorphous. Dimorphous circles or orbits around
Didymus. It is the same way the Moon orbits the Earth. Then DART
would crash into Dimorphous. Scientists hope that crash would move the asteroid. They
wanted to shorten its orbit. By studying the orbit, they could see how
much force DART had. Then they could use that information when trying to push
asteroids in the future. Ed lu Is, the director of the Asteroid Institute.
It is an organization that focuses on planetary defense. He spoke to news
organization NPR about the darts Jek's success. The point is this is a great
thing. Someday we are going to find an asteroid which has a high chance
of hitting the Earth. We are going to want to avoid it. We
should have some experience first, we should know that this would work. DART
was a project started by NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The United States provides the money for this government agency, but many other countries
came together to make the project possible. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency helped,
the Italian Space Agency helped monitor DART. In several years, the European Space
Agency will send a ship to Dimorphus. They will study what changes DART made
to the asteroid. Defending the planet is important. Asteroids are not an immediate
danger to Earth, but in a hundred years we may need this technology.
But planetary defense is a very large job. It requires many countries to work
together. Bill Nelson is the NASA administrator. He spoke in a press release
after the DART test. As a whole, DART represents a great success for
planetary defense, but it is also a project of coming together. It helps
all humanity. NASA studies space and our home planet, but we are also
working to protect that home. This involved many countries working together. It turned
made up science fiction stories into science facts, and it demonstrated one way to
protect Earth. Have you heard of the Dart project? Do you think it
is important? What else could people do to protect the Earth? You can
leave a comment on our website or email us at Radio at Radio English dot
net. You can also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Spotlight Radio.
The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer was Michio Ozaki.
The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States.
All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen
to this program again and read it on the internet at www dot Radio English
dot net. This program is called Dart. You can also get our programs
delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye, m