Adam McKay ’s 2021 Netflix dramedyDon’t seem Upleft many viewers reflect an important interrogation : Whatwouldwe do if aspace objectwith the power to obliterate a planet was headed straight for Earth ?
Well , NASAis trying some hooey out .
MeetDimorphos , a 525 - foot - long asteroid revolve the tumid asteroid Didymos , whose diam stretches some half a mile across . Though the system is n’t on a collision course of instruction with Earth , it ’s only about 6.8 million miles away from us right now — well within the 30 - million - international nautical mile orbital range that qualifies an asteroid or comet as a “ near - Earth objective ” ( NEO ) . It ’s also sizable enough to do some damage if it were headed for Earth . So , asCNN account , NASA opt it as the test subject for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test , or DART .
Basically , the DART squad is plan to dash a spacecraft into Dimorphos to see how much it affects the asteroid ’s orbital route . “ Scientists think the collision will shift the upper of Dimorphos by a fraction of 1 percentage , ” NASAexplained . “ It should alter the moonlet ’s orbital period around the larger asteroid by several minutes — enough to be observed and measure by scope on Earth . ” If the deputation succeeds in interfering with the asteroid ’s trajectory , it bodes well for NASA ’s ability to further develop the deflection technology to expend on more threatening NEOs in the time to come .
The DART space vehicle launched back in November 2021 , and it ’s slated to collide with Dimorphos at 7:14 p.m. EST tonight ( Monday , September 26 ) . Traveling with DART are two photographer : DRACO , an onboard mental imagery and navigational instrument that will seize photos right up to the moment of impact ; and the Italian Space Agency’sLICIACube , a artificial satellite that split from the guile in the beginning this calendar month . LICIACube will document the missionary station during and after the clangour via two television camera : LUKE ( LICIACube Unit Key Explorer ) and LEIA ( LICIACube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid ) .
Coverage of the issue starts at 6 p.m. EST tonight onNASA TV , which you may stream for free on a figure of political platform listedhere . NASA will also host a Facebook Live event , which you may accesshere , plus a YouTube livestream that you may tune up into below .
[ h / tCNN ]
