Nasa DART mission - as it happened: Nasa successfully smashes spacecraft into asteroid in first major test
Nasa completes the first-ever planetary defence mission, an attempt to change the course of an asteroid by hitting it with a spacecraft
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Your support makes all the difference.Nasa‘s asteroid-deflecting DART spacecraft successfully slammed into its target on Monday, 10 months after launch.
The test of the world’s first planetary defense system will determine how prepared we are to prevent a doomsday collision with Earth.
The cube-shaped “impactor” vehicle, roughly the size of a vending machine with two rectangular solar arrays, flew into the asteroid Dimorphos, about as large as a football stadium, and self-destructed around 7.14pm EDT (11pm GMT) some 6.8 million miles (11 million km) from Earth.
The mission’s finale tested the ability of a spacecraft to alter an asteroid’s trajectory with sheer kinetic force, plowing into the object at high speed to nudge it astray just enough to keep our planet out of harm’s way.
It will be the first time humanity has changed the motion of an asteroid, or any celestial body. Nasa has a live stream of the event, which you can find at the top of our live blog below.
Hello and welcome...
... to The Independent’s live coverage of Nasa’s DART mission, its plan to crash into an asteroid to try out how it might save Earth.
Collision will happen on Monday evening
Nasa predicts that DART will crash into its asteroid, Dimorphos, at 7.14pm local time on Monday evening. That’s just after midnight in the UK.
(It might take a short while to know it has actually done so, successfully, with engineers needing to receive and then pick through the data.)
How to watch live
Nasa will be hosting live coverage from 6pm local eastern time, through its NASA TV platforms. The best way to watch them tends to be through YouTube, though they can be found on Nasa’s own website, and that stream is below:
Nasa will also be providing images from the spacecraft itself, starting at 5.30pm, through its media channel. That will give just the pictures, without the explanation, so might be harder to follow but more peaceful. That stream is here:
Nasa also looking towards the Moon and Artemis
By the end of the day, Nasa could have a big success on its hands with DART. But it could also be dealing with yet more worries from another source: the Moon, and the Artemis rocket that aims to get there.
The rocket was meant to set off weeks ago, and after delays was meant to be setting off today. But a variety of problems – the latest being a tropical storm – have caused it to be delayed.
Today, Nasa could announce that they’ll have to move the rocket back off its launchpad. If that happens then there won’t be a launch until November at the earliest.
How the DART mission could save life on Earth
Scientists will often tell you about how their work is helping humanity. But it’s rare that it’s quite so obvious: the DART mission could one day stop humanity from being wiped out. Here’s how.
Artemis launch attempt cancelled
Nasa will roll back its Artemis rocket from its launchpad, and give up on launching it any time soon. The decision comes after a run of problems – the most recent being an incoming tropical storm.
(This doesn’t directly affect DART, which is being run entirely separately, but it is a busy day for Nasa!)
Webb telescope aimed at asteroid
Another of Nasa’s big recent projects, the James Webb Space Telescope, is going to try and have a look at today’s proceedings. It’s pointing towards the asteroid that Nasa will try and smash into today.
Nasa says Earth ‘strikes back’ against asteroids
Nasa has shared an animation of the DART mission to its official Twitter account, with a dramatic voiceover that rivals any trailer for an apocalypse movie.
“In a galaxy where asteroids have pummelled planets for millions of years, now, one planet strikes back,” it says. “For the first time in our planet’s history, Nasa will test an asteroid deflection technique. It’s the first planetary defence method of its kind.”
You can watch it here:
Nasa live stream of Dart mission counts down to asteroid deflection test
Nasa is providing a live feed from a camera onboard its Didymos space craft for its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation – AKA the Draco camera – is the only instrument onboard.
The real-time stream sends one image of the approaching asteroid per second to Earth. You can watch it live here:
If you’re wondering what you’re looking at, Nasa explains: “In the hours before impact, the screen will appear mostly black, with a single point of light. That point is the binary asteroid system Didymos which is made up of a larger asteroid named Didymos and a smaller asteroid that orbits around it called Dimorphos. As the 7.14 pm EDT (23.14 GMT) impact of asteroid Dimorphos nears closer, the point of light will get bigger and eventually detailed asteroids will be visible.”
Nasa says ‘no cause for alarm’ about asteroid mission
Whoever is in charge of Nasa’s social media accounts has been busy over the last couple of hours since posting the theatrical animation of the DART mission.
A lot of users appeared concerned that deflecting the asteroid could have a knock-on effect would lead to unintended damage to other planets or celestial bodies.
“There is no cause for alarm. DART is too small to knock Dimorphos out of its orbit around Didymos,” reads one Twitter reply from the US space agency. “This impact will change the path of the smaller asteroid just enough to be measured by Earth-based telescopes (less than per cent). This asteroid is both well known and well studied.”
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