NASA’s Asteroid-Striking DART Mission - Sept. 26 Monday

[Tyrian-Quill]

• Double Asteroid Redirection Test is a NASA space mission
  
  On Monday, Sept. 26, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission has the challenging goal of crashing its spacecraft into Dimorphos, a small moonlet orbiting a larger asteroid by the name of Didymos. While the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, this mission will test technology that could be used to defend our planet against potential asteroid or comet hazards that may be detected in the future.

  Source to read the entire article: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-ast ... pl-members

The future is out there

[Jlabute]

Thanks. I can hardly wait. The 160m diameter moonlet is massive (at 4.8 million tons) compared to the 600kg DART projectile. I suppose we will see if NASA is correct in that the orbit of Dimorphos will change by 1%, or by a few minutes after the impact. It may take months to know.

[77TA]

I was hoping we would send Bruce Willis.
This should be interesting though.

[GordonH]

I was hoping we would send Bruce Willis.
This should be interesting though.

Knowing his current medical situation he probably gladly go.

[JagXKR]

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/dart-s-fin ... -to-impact
It's a hit!
Now we wait for the results of a kinetic impactor on a rubble pile asteroid.
HERA won't launch until 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hera_(space_mission)

[JagXKR]

Webb and Hubble both imaged the impact!
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/20 ... art-impact

Two of NASA’s Great Observatories, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, have captured views of a unique NASA experiment designed to intentionally smash a spacecraft into a small asteroid in the world’s first-ever in-space test for planetary defense. These observations of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact mark the first time that Webb and Hubble simultaneously observed the same celestial target.

[JagXKR]

https://phys.org/news/2022-10-soar-tele ... -tail.html

In this new image, the dust trail—the ejecta that has been pushed away by the sun's radiation pressure, not unlike the tail of a comet—can be seen stretching from the center to the right-hand edge of the field of view, which at SOAR is about 3.1 arcminutes using the Goodman High Throughput Spectrograph. At Didymos's distance from Earth at the time of the observation, that would equate to at least 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) from the point of impact.

DART Ejecta

[JagXKR]

Measurements confirm a change in orbit! Changed by 32 minutes. First time in the history of mankind that we have altered an orbit of a planetary object. This is proof of concept.
The amount of change is more than expected, or at least on the very high end of estimates. Models will have to be revisited. Seems that the ejecta contributed much more to the movement of Dimorphos.
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/scien ... 022-10-11/

"This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity," NASA chief Bill Nelson told reporters in announcing the results.
Comparison of pre- and post-impact astronomical measurements of the Dimorphos orbit around Didymos showed a 32-minute shortening of its trajectory, proving the exercise as a viable technique to deflect an asteroid from a collision course with Earth, if such an asteroid were ever discovered.
APL scientists had predicted that the DART impact would shorten the orbital path of Dimorphos by at least 10 minutes but said they would have considered a change as little as 73 seconds a success.

Terrible news for Hollywood.

[Tyrian-Quill]

Measurements confirm a change in orbit! Changed by 32 minutes. First time in the history of mankind that we have altered an orbit of a planetary object. This is proof of concept.
The amount of change is more than expected, or at least on the very high end of estimates. Models will have to be revisited. Seems that the ejecta contributed much more to the movement of Dimorphos.
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/scien ... 022-10-11/

"This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity," NASA chief Bill Nelson told reporters in announcing the results.
Comparison of pre- and post-impact astronomical measurements of the Dimorphos orbit around Didymos showed a 32-minute shortening of its trajectory, proving the exercise as a viable technique to deflect an asteroid from a collision course with Earth, if such an asteroid were ever discovered.
APL scientists had predicted that the DART impact would shorten the orbital path of Dimorphos by at least 10 minutes but said they would have considered a change as little as 73 seconds a success.

Terrible news for Hollywood.

Excellent News, Thanks for sharing and posting.