{"id":36896,"date":"2022-09-20T21:03:22","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T21:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=112127"},"modified":"2022-09-20T21:15:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T21:15:13","slug":"nasas-dart-the-mission-to-crash-into-an-asteroid","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/nasas-dart-the-mission-to-crash-into-an-asteroid\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s DART: The mission to crash into an asteroid"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Govert Schilling\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 20 September 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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On 26 September 2022 at 19:14 EDT (23:14 UTC), NASA\u2019s\u00a0 DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft will smash into the small moon of asteroid 65803 Didymos.<\/p>\n

Telescopes on Earth will measure the resulting change in the moonlet\u2019s orbit, while the European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA\u2019s) Hera mission<\/a> will study the damaged target up close in 2026.<\/p>\n

Why is NASA doing this? Well,\u00a0 over its 4.5 billion year lifetime, Earth has been battered and pummelled by cosmic collisions.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
A meteor crater near Winslow, Arizona, USA. Credit: Dominic Jeanmaire \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Some 50,000 years ago, a small asteroid<\/a> slammed into northern Arizona, USA, leaving a 1,200m-wide impact crater and turning the area into a wasteland.<\/p>\n

A similar impact today would have catastrophic consequences \u2013 unless we could find a way to divert the space rock.<\/p>\n

NASA will test the technology to do just that, by firing a half-tonne spacecraft into a small asteroid in an attempt to deflect its path.<\/p>\n

Watch the DART mission live feed online<\/strong><\/h2>\n

NASA is streaming a feed from the DART spacecraft, and you can watch it via the window below.<\/p>\n