Tonight you will see a spectacular event in space live on the Internet: a NASA spacecraft hits a celestial body. This is how the salvation of the earth is rehearsed. This is how you are there live.
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Tonight: NASA spacecraft hits asteroid moon – NASA tries to save Earth.
©NASA
One of the most spectacular space experiments is about to be completed. Because in a few hours, a spacecraft launched by NASA in November 2021 will hit an asteroid moon. This is the first such asteroid defense experiment.
DART (“Double Asteroid Redirection Test”)
The experiment, with which NASA wants to test the defense against celestial bodies dangerous for Earth, is called DART (“Double Asteroid Redirection Test”), which means something like “double asteroid redirection test”. The impact of the spaceship on the asteroid moon should change its trajectory slightly.
The celestial body hit by the NASA spacecraft is called Dimorphos and is around 163 meters tall. Dimorphos orbits the asteroid Didymos (diameter about 780 meters). The impact is expected to shorten the time it takes Dimorphos to complete an orbit around Didymos by around ten minutes.
The DART probe will hit the asteroid at a speed of 23,000 km/h at a distance of around eleven million kilometers from Earth. This should happen on the night of Monday (September 26th, 2022) to Tuesday at 1.15 a.m. NASA broadcasts the collision live. Countless telescopes will observe the collision, and DART will also send data to Earth until the very end.
If the DART probe misses Dimorphos, NASA says it will have enough fuel on board to repeat the attempt. That could then be the case in two years, as reported by Deutschlandfunk.
By the way, Dimorphos or Didymos does not pose any danger to the earth. Currently, the space authorities do not know of a single asteroid that poses an acute threat to Earth.
This is how you are there live
NASA will broadcast the exciting maneuver from midnight of our time.
You can follow the collision here on the NASA website.
Here NASA is broadcasting the event on YouTube
You can also find the stream here at NASA-TV.
Facebook users are following the impact via this NASA Facebook page.
If you prefer Twitter to broadcast, you are
right here in NASA’s Twitter channel.
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