{"id":36379,"date":"2022-09-15T14:27:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T14:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=36379"},"modified":"2022-09-21T10:29:53","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T10:29:53","slug":"qa-with-the-dart-mission-coordinator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2022\/09\/15\/qa-with-the-dart-mission-coordinator\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with the DART mission coordinator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ezzy Pearson interviews Nancy Chabot <\/h4>\n\n

On 26 September, NASA\u2019s DART mission will crash into the asteroid Dimorphos. Its aim is to find out if deflection could save Earth from future impacts <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
After intentionally crashing DART into the asteroid, scientists hope to observe changes in its orbit and ultimately alter its trajectory <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

What is the DART Mission? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission is a very exciting first step for planetary defence. It\u2019s a NASA mission that\u2019s built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab that is purposely crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to change its motion slightly. DART is just one part of a much larger planetary defence strategy. Key to that strategy is finding asteroids ahead of time. If one was ever discovered to be on course with Earth, this method could potentially deflect it. We\u2019re not blowing up the asteroid. Rather, we give it a small nudge, which changes its orbit ever so slightly. When you do this years in advance, it adds up over time so that the asteroid and Earth aren\u2019t on a collision course in the future. It\u2019s important to say that this asteroid is not a threat to Earth: this is just a test. But it\u2019s an important first step. <\/p>\n\n

Which asteroid will DART impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s actually a double asteroid. The largest one is named Didymos and has a moon that orbits around it, Dimorphos. DART is targeting that small moon. It\u2019s just going to change how it goes around the much larger asteroid ever so slightly. The fact that it\u2019s a double asteroid is key to enabling the mission. We want to know how much we deflected the asteroid, but the spacecraft will be totally destroyed. Instead, we\u2019ll use telescopes here on Earth. These have already been studying this double asteroid system for decades. We know it takes 11 hours and 55 minutes for Dimorphos to go around Didymos right now. We\u2019re going to turn back to those telescopes after the impact and they\u2019ll tell us how much we changed the orbit time. It\u2019s going to be small, maybe about a 1 per cent change, which may be about 10 minutes or so. <\/p>\n\n

What will we be able to see during the impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

DART is a really focused mission, but it has a camera named DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation). It has two purposes. First is to see the asteroid. This asteroid is 160m in diameter and we\u2019re targeting it very fast \u2013 22,500km\/h. In fact, because Dimorphos is so close to Didymos, you can\u2019t actually distinguish them until the last hour of the mission. So DART has to autonomously detect Dimorphos, fire its thrusters and use those DRACO images to ensure an effective collision. The second purpose is to stream images back during its final moments.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Will people be able to see the impact from home? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The telescopes that we\u2019re going to use to make this precise measurement of how much we deflected the asteroid have to be state-of-the-art facilities. That said, the distance between Didymos and Earth is minimised during impact to around 17.7 million kilometres, so it will be shining at about magnitude +15.0. If you have a back garden telescope equipped with a CCD camera or other imaging system, you won\u2019t be able to make out Dimorphos or the impact itself, but you might be able to capture an image of where Didymos is in the sky. I definitely encourage people to give that a try. We also plan to share the whole kinetic impact event live on NASA TV on 26 September, showing those final images from the DRACO camera until they stop. It\u2019s going to be a historic event we get to witness together. <\/p>\n\n

Could it make the asteroid a threat to Earth? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

This is one of the beauties of this mission. We\u2019re just knocking Dimorphos\u2019s orbit ever so slightly closer to the much larger Didymos. It doesn\u2019t change how that asteroid system goes around the Sun in any measurable manner, and hence there\u2019s no danger to Earth. <\/p>\n\n

How are you feeling, ahead of the impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m excited. We\u2019re taking something from Hollywood blockbusters, asteroid deflection, and making it so we can live in a future where we might have this capability going forward. And it\u2019s not just fiction, but reality. We\u2019re ready and it\u2019s going to be an exciting year to come. <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Nancy Chabot is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and coordinator of the DART mission <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Photos: NASA\/JOHNS HOPKINS\/APL\/STEVE GRIBBEN <\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interview with Nancy Chabot <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":36377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"98","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"98","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_98-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_98-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"October-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"October-2022","purple_external_id":"October-2022-98-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"October-2022-98-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086557||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086557||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.209","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.209","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.209","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.209","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/9b147e72-ad46-493f-8c41-f129f286b5d8.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/9b147e72-ad46-493f-8c41-f129f286b5d8.jpg",1134,835,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/9b147e72-ad46-493f-8c41-f129f286b5d8-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/9b147e72-ad46-493f-8c41-f129f286b5d8-300x221.jpg",300,221,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/9b147e72-ad46-493f-8c41-f129f286b5d8-768x566.jpg",768,566,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/9b147e72-ad46-493f-8c41-f129f286b5d8-1024x754.jpg",800,589,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/9b147e72-ad46-493f-8c41-f129f286b5d8.jpg",1134,835,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/09\/9b147e72-ad46-493f-8c41-f129f286b5d8.jpg",1134,835,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"An interview with Nancy Chabot","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36379"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36859,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36379\/revisions\/36859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}