NASA Is Crashing a Spacecraft into an Asteroid Today,

NASA’s Planetary Defense mission DART (The Double Asteroid Redirection Test) will impact asteroid Dimorphos Today (September 26) at 19:14 ET.

NASA is right on track to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid in what is the first planetary defence mission attempt in the history of mankind. DART (The Double Asteroid Redirection Test) may evoke memories of Hollywood movies such as Armageddon or Deep Impact, but this is very real and is actually part of the US space agency’s first planetary defence test. It is worth mentioning, however, that the asteroid that is about to be struck by DART poses no threat to our planet. In essence, the DART mission is a scientific experiment that, if successful, could help scientists develop better and stronger spacecraft that one day, should it be necessary, deflect an asteroid on a collision course to Earth.

Launched in November 2021, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test travelled for nearly a year to finally catch up to the small asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid dubbed Didymos. Didymos and Dimorphos have also made their closest approach to Earth in years and are currently passing as close as 10.8 million kilometres from our planet. The impact will take place today (September 26) at 19:14 ET and can be seen live on NASA TV and the agency’s YouTube channel. The spacecraft performed its final approach manoeuvre towards the target asteroid yesterday and is not autonomously guiding itself towards Dimorphous.

As part of their partnership with several South African observatories, the Virtual Telescope Project will display the asteroid’s trajectory in real-time at the time of its scheduled impact. The collision will likely slow Dimorphos and trim its orbit around its companion asteroid. Even though the asteroid is small, NASA says that observers will be able to detect changes in the brightness of the asteroid caused by the impact.

Observations of the change in the orbital period will be made through telescopes located on Earth. Seventy-three seconds is the minimum change required for the mission to be considered successful. The DART technique may be useful in altering the trajectory of asteroid years or decades before it threatens the Earth.