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(Picture credit score: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)
We’re only one month out from influence — influence of NASA’s DART spacecraft into an asteroid, that’s.
Managed by the Johns Hopkins Utilized Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland for NASA, the Double Asteroid Redirection Take a look at (DART) mission is the first-ever planetary defense take a look at. On Sept. 26 at 7:14 p.m. EDT (2314 GMT), the DART spacecraft will crash into the asteroid Dimorphos at roughly 15,000 mph (24,000 kph) in an try to change the celestial physique’s trajectory round a bigger asteroid referred to as Didymos.
Though Dimorphos is just not on a collision course with Earth, the mission is a take a look at to see if “kinetic influence know-how” would work to deflect any potential Earth-bound asteroids.
Associated: NASA’s DART asteroid-impact mission explained in pictures
The mission launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 24, 2021. Since then, DART has traveled roughly 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers) to the binary asteroid system Didymos. Didymos is the bigger asteroid at 2,500 ft (780 meters) in diameter, whereas Dimorphos is the smaller “moonlet” asteroid at 525 ft (160 m) in diameter. For comparability, the asteroid that powerfully exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 was 60 ft (18 m) in diameter.
The selection of concentrating on a binary system was intentional. As a result of the 2 asteroids revolve round each other — they usually each might be noticed by Earth-based telescopes — we’ll shortly be capable of see if the DART spacecraft’s influence shifted Dimorphos’ orbit.
Members of the general public will be capable of view dwell protection of the influence on NASA TV, NASA’s web site, and NASA social media pages starting at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) on Sept. 26.
Nevertheless, do not count on to see dwell video of the influence itself. Though DART is provided with the Reconnaissance and Asteroid Digital camera for Optical Navigation (DRACO) digicam, that instrument is used to autonomously navigate the spacecraft to Dimorphos, in addition to {photograph} the asteroid’s floor as DART approaches. However the influence will reduce off the digicam’s knowledge feed when it destroys the spacecraft.
Nevertheless, the mission does embody the Italian House Company’s Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) tagging alongside for the journey. Earlier than influence, DART will jettison LICIACube, which can extra slowly fly by Dimorphos to {photograph} the influence and its, properly, influence on the Didymos binary system.
In about 4 years, nonetheless, the European House Company’s Hera mission will rendezvous with Didymos and Dimorphos to review DART’s influence intimately.
However that is nonetheless a great distance down the highway. For now, we’ll simply be bracing for subsequent month’s influence.
Observe Stefanie Waldek on Twitter @StefanieWaldek. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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House.com contributing author Stefanie Waldek is a self-taught area nerd and aviation geek who’s enthusiastic about all issues spaceflight and astronomy. With a background in journey and design journalism, in addition to a Bachelor of Arts diploma from New York College, she specializes within the budding area tourism business and Earth-based astrotourism. In her free time, you could find her watching rocket launches or wanting up on the stars, questioning what’s on the market. Study extra about her work at www.stefaniewaldek.com (opens in new tab).
