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Updated June 20th, 2022 at 16:27 IST

NASA provides update on asteroid-killing DART mission; 98 days until historic collision

NASA's DART spacecraft, which is on its way to a binary asteroid system, is just 98 days away from intentionally crashing into an asteroid.

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
NASA
Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory | Image:self
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We are just 98 days away when a NASA spacecraft will intentionally collide with an asteroid moonlet. This one-of-a-kind outer space action will unfold under the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission that was launched on November 24, 2021. In a recent update pertaining to the same, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, shared the news, underscoring that this technology can be used to protect our planet from a hazardous asteroid. 

Aim of DART mission

This is the first-ever mission dedicated to testing the technology to deflect an asteroid's path through kinetic impact. As part of DART, NASA has deployed a spacecraft to a binary near-Earth asteroid system, which consists of Didymos (having a diameter of 780-meter or 2,560-foot) and its small moonlet named Dimorphous (diameter 160-meter or 530-foot). Exactly 100 days from now, the DART spacecraft will crash into Dimorphous, located 109.4 crore kilometres, to change the asteroid's motion. 

(DART's orbital path; Image: NASA)

Following the crash, NASA will investigate the results of DART’s kinetic impact with Earth-based telescopes and compare them with highly detailed computer simulations of kinetic impacts on asteroids. Scientists believe that this mission is promising in terms of developing a defense system for our planet which could save it from another mass-extinction level incoming asteroid.

"DART is a test of our ability to achieve a kinetic impact on an asteroid and observe the asteroid’s response", the agency said in a statement. "After DART’s kinetic impact with its target asteroid Dimorphos, an investigation team will measure how much the impact changed the asteroid’s motion in space using telescopes on Earth". Interestingly, the impact will also be visible thanks to a CubeSat, developed by the Italian Space Agency, which has accompanied DART in its journey.

Named LICIACube, it is Italy's first deep-space mission and will create a real photoshoot of the impact when NASA's probe collides with the asteroid and beam the data back to the scientists. The need for LICIACube emerged as DART also has a powerful camera, called DRACO, but it will be destroyed after the spacecraft crashes into the asteroid.

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Published June 20th, 2022 at 16:25 IST

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