Asteroid-crashing mission ready for impact

NASA’s DART spacecraft is about to smash into the small moon of an asteroid, in the first test of a technique that could one day be used to deflect a dangerous space rock heading for Earth


DOUBLE ASTEROID REDIRECTION TEST (DART): Mission targets asteroid's moonlet 11 million km away that poses no danger to Earth

Didymos

1.2km

Original orbit of Dimorphos

New orbit after impact

LICIACube 

DART

Dimorphos: DART impact at speed of 6.6km/sec expected to shorten time it takes for moonlet to orbit Didymos
Small shift could be enough to knock similar object off collision course with Earth

DART: 550kg craft to hit Dimorphos on Sep 26

LICIACube satellite, equipped with camera, will relay pictures of impact back to earth 


Didymos 
780m wide

Empire State Building to scale

Dimorphos: 160m
Object of this size hitting Earth could cause tens of thousands of casualties


Sources: BBC, Johns Hopkins APL
Picture: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL 
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