NASA’s DART mission will crash into an asteroid
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NASA’s DART mission
Asteroids go by Earth all the time and scientists are always keeping a check on them. If even one of them hits Earth, it would create a huge impact. Thankfully, as of now, there are no asteroids likely to hit Earth anytime.
However, in order to be prepared, NASA is launching its DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) Mission. In this mission, NASA will crash a spacecraft travelling at 24,000 km/hour into an asteroid next year.
The DART is to see whether this is an effective way to change the course (direction) of an asteroid if one should threaten Earth in the future.
NASA aims to launch the DART mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 23 November 2021 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It aims to hit an asteroid called Dimorphos. This asteroid is about 525 feet in diameter and orbits around a larger asteroid named Didymos.
If all goes well, the spacecraft will hit the asteroid between 26 September and 1 October of next year. It will not destroy the asteroid but push it and change its path.
NASA has chosen this asteroid as the target because it is easy to observe them from Earth using telescopes. DART will also have a small satellite along with it, which will separate from it and take photos of the event.
Till now, NASA has observed more than 27,000 near-Earth asteroids.
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