NASA's DART mission did divert asteroid + Astronomers analyzed JWST data prematurely

[C C]

‘Bit of panic’: astronomers forced to rethink early JWST findings
https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...-findings/

EXCERPTS: Astronomers have been so keen to use the new James Webb Space Telescope that some have got a little ahead of themselves. Many started analysing Webb data right after the first batch was released, on 14 July, and quickly posted their results on preprint servers—but are now having to revise them. The telescope’s detectors had not been calibrated thoroughly when the first data were made available, and that fact slipped past some astronomers in their excitement.

The revisions don’t so far appear to substantially change many of the exciting early results, such as the discovery of a number of candidates for the most distant galaxy ever spotted. But the ongoing calibration process is forcing astronomers to reckon with the limitations of early data from Webb.

Figuring out how to redo the work is “thorny and annoying”, says Marco Castellano, an astronomer at the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome. “There’s been a lot of frustration,” says Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “I don’t think anybody really expected this to be as big of an issue as it’s becoming,” adds Guido Roberts-Borsani, an astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles.

[...] “...preliminary studies, such as those that draw conclusions about the early Universe by comparing large numbers of faint galaxies, might not stand the test of time. Other fields of research, such as planetary studies, are not affected as much because they depend less on these preliminary brightness measurements.

“We’ve come to realize how much this data processing is an ongoing and developing situation, just because the observatory is so new and so young,” says Gabriel Brammer, an astronomer at the University of Copenhagen who has been developing Webb calibrations independent of the STScI... (MORE - missing details)

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Smashing success: humanity has diverted an asteroid for the first time
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03255-w

INTRO: Humans have for the first time proven that they can change the path of a massive rock hurtling through space. NASA has announced that the spacecraft it slammed into an asteroid on 26 September succeeded in altering the space rock’s orbit around another asteroid — with better-than-expected results.

Agency officials had estimated that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft would ‘nudge’ the asteroid Dimorphos closer to its partner, Didymos, and cut its orbit time around that rock by 10–15 minutes. At an 11 October press conference, researchers confirmed that DART in fact cut the orbit time by around 32 minutes.

Neither asteroid was a threat to Earth, but the agency tested the manoeuvre on them to prove that humanity could, in principle, deflect a worrisome space rock heading for the planet. “This is a watershed moment for planetary defence, and a watershed moment for humanity,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson... (MORE - details)

RELATED (scivillage): Ground telescopes capture jaw-dropping views of DART asteroid impact
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https://youtu.be/N-q2z4N_Rsk

Oct 11, 2022 - DART impact successfully moved asteroid Dimorphos! NASA chief explains

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/N-q2z4N_Rsk

https://youtu.be/UqCPosUu8sQ

(full live stream) NASA says DART mission succeeded in altering asteroid's trajectory

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/UqCPosUu8sQ

[confused2]

I'd guess it is almost more exciting working with slightly suspect data than with 'acclaimed' good data.

[C C]

(21-Mar-2023) First results from ESO telescopes on the aftermath of DART’s asteroid impact
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/983113

[Kornee]

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Smashing success: humanity has diverted an asteroid for the first time
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03255-w

INTRO: Humans have for the first time proven that they can change the path of a massive rock hurtling through space. NASA has announced that the spacecraft it slammed into an asteroid on 26 September succeeded in altering the space rock’s orbit around another asteroid — with better-than-expected results.

Agency officials had estimated that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft would ‘nudge’ the asteroid Dimorphos closer to its partner, Didymos, and cut its orbit time around that rock by 10–15 minutes. At an 11 October press conference, researchers confirmed that DART in fact cut the orbit time by around 32 minutes.

Neither asteroid was a threat to Earth, but the agency tested the manoeuvre on them to prove that humanity could, in principle, deflect a worrisome space rock heading for the planet. “This is a watershed moment for planetary defence, and a watershed moment for humanity,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson... (MORE - details)

And what was the price tag for this NASA PR demo that asteroids are not strangely immune to Newton's 3rd Law?
Large but no doubt way less than the price tag for continuing to pump armaments into Ukraine expressly to keep stoking a proxy war of attrition with Russia.
To hell with any attempt at encouraging rather than obstinately blocking any real diplomacy. Who cares if that belligerent track has every chance of leading to all out nuclear war.
The latter prospect is imo a lot lot more likely and urgent an issue than that of an extinction level killer asteroid impact in say the next 10 million years.