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<ul><li>The first target of the mechanism to defend the Earth against asteroids now has an official name — Dimorphos. </li><li>Didymos’ smaller binary companion will be the first celestial body to have “substantially changed as a result of human intervention. ” </li><li>The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Double Asteroid Impact Test (DART) will collide with Dimorphos at 6.6 kilometers per second to change its trajectory.</li></ul>In Earth’s endeavour to defend itself against asteroid impacts, the first target Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) <keyword id="9636614" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="planetary-defence-mission">planetary defence mission</keyword> has been dubbed Dimorphos by the International Astronomical Union (<a href="https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2007/">IAU</a>). <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="70956700" title="NASA and the European Space Agency are meeting to defend the Earth against asteroids" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> In the past, it has held many titles from Didymoon to S/2003 (65803) — it’s provisional designation — but it did not have an official name. It was only when it was chosen as the ideal candidate to test Earth’s outer space defences did the question of a permanent designation come into play. The primary reason for the official designation was so that it will be easier to distinguish Dimorphos from its primary companion — Didymos. “As the target of the DART and Hera space missions, it will become the first celestial body in cosmic history whose form was substantially changed as a result of human intervention,” <a href="https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2007/">said the proposal</a> sent to IAU. Knocking an asteroid off its course The two-part mission involves the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Double Asteroid Impact Test (DART) to collide with Dimorphos followed by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera satellite which will go in to assess the impact. DART is meant to knock the asteroid off its course to determine if the mechanism can work to change the route of an asteroid that might be headed directly for Earth. It will travel at a speed of 6.6 kilometers per second to break the space rock into smaller pieces with help from its onboard camera — DRACO — and autonomous navigation software. An Italian CubeSat, LICIACube, will be flying alongside DART to record the impact and send the data back to the on-ground team. It’s set to launch one year from now in July 2021 and will take another year to reach its target. ESA’s space probe will follow in 2024. The aim of analysing the asteroid after the impact is to figure out if the planetary defence mechanism can be made more efficient. Dimorphos will not hit Earth The primary asteroid, Didymos, or its binary companion and target, Dimorphos, don’t pose any threat of actually hitting Earth. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="70893317" title="For an asteroid to wipe out humans, it has to be bigger than the one that killed the dinosaurs" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> The reason it has been chosen as the first target is that it’s the most easily reachable asteroid system that is big enough. The primary body has a diameter of 780 meters and Dimorphos is around 160 meters in diameter — around the same size as the Great Pyramid in Egypt. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/pictures-of-comet-neowise-in-swiss-alps-stonehenge-and-other-parts-of-the-world/slidelist/77034838.cms">IN PICS: Comet NEOWISE spotted blazing from the Stonehenge to the Swiss Alps, in skies all over the world</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasa-gets-35-million-to-make-sure-asteroids-dont-destroy-earth/articleshow/72996562.cms">NASA gets $35 million to make sure asteroids don't destroy Earth</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasa-and-elon-musks-spacex-plan-to-send-up-four-more-astronauts-to-the-iss-in-september/articleshow/77122857.cms">NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX plan to send up four more astronauts to the ISS in September</a>

NASA and Europe’s first target to keep an asteroid from hitting Earth has officially been dubbed Dimorphos

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA is set to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid Monday as part of its <a href="https://www.insider.com/nasa-dart-crash-spacecraft-asteroid-change-its-course-planetary-defense-2021-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Double Asteroid Redirection Test</a>.</li><li>The first-of-it-kind mission is testing NASA's ability to deflect incoming space rocks.</li></ul>Right now, a golf cart-sized spacecraft is hurtling toward a tiny asteroid at about 14,000 miles per hour. On Monday evening, it'll reach its target: a puny space rock.The spacecraft will slam into the asteroid purpose. It's a test of NASA's ability to deflect dangerous asteroids off a collision course with Earth — should the need arise.NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launches-dart-probe-into-collision-course-with-asteroid-2021-11">launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9</a> in November 2021, with the aim of nudging a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">space rock</a> into a slightly tighter orbit around its companion asteroid. The $308 million spacecraft traveled 6.8 million miles from Earth to Dimorphos, a small asteroid orbiting the asteroid Didymos.A livestream of images captured by the spacecraft will be available on <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA's website</a> beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET. The impact is expected to occur around 7:14 p.m. ET."I'm highly confident that we are going to hit on Monday and that there will be a complete success," Lindley Johnson, NASA's first planetary defense officer, told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.Four hours before impact, DART will switch into autonomous mode, steering itself toward its target. If all goes according to plan, the 1,376-pound spacecraft will collide with Dimorphos, altering its orbit around Didymos ever so slightly. Scientists expect the collision to change the speed of Dimorphos by a fraction of 1%.(The <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasas-first-planetary-defense-mission-target-gets-a-new-name/">asteroid's name, Dimorphos</a>, is Greek for "having two forms" and was chosen because the asteroid will have one form before DART crashes into it, and another form after.)"We're moving an asteroid. We are changing the motion of a natural celestial body in space. Humanity has never done that before," Tom Statler, NASA's DART program scientist, told reporters on Thursday. "This is stuff of science fiction books and really corny episodes of 'Star Trek' from when I was a kid, and now it's real."Dimorphos is around 525 feet in diameter, and it orbits another, larger asteroid — the 2,650-foot-wide Didymos.<div type="image" title="This image of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) on July 27, 2022." height="1080" width="1920" msid="94501314" hostid="261"></div>According to Elena Adams, a DART mission systems engineer, the team will know DART successfully smashed into Dimorphos when they lose the spacecraft's signal. "We'll all celebrate," Adams told reporters on Thursday.The asteroid system poses no threat to Earth, according to NASA, making it the perfect target to test our ability to slam into asteroids, in order to change their orbit, and move them out of Earth's way. NASA currently knows the location and orbit of roughly <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-next-generation-asteroid-impact-monitoring-system-goes-online">28,000 nearby asteroids</a>. To be clear, scientists have found no asteroid that poses an immediate threat to human civilization. But experts say that it's a matter of when — not if — Earth finds itself on track to be hit by one.<div type="image" title="An animation looking from behind as NASA's first planetary defense test mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), collides with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos." height="338" width="600" msid="94501315" hostid="261"></div><h1>NASA plans to film the collision</h1>While the spacecraft will not survive the encounter, its single science instrument — the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) — will be switched on for the death dive, taking one image per second to document the impact and aftermath."We are excited for what DRACO will reveal about Didymos and Dimorphos in the hours and minutes leading up to impact," Carolyn Ernst, DRACO instrument scientist at APL, said in a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/dart-tests-autonomous-navigation-system-using-jupiter-and-europa/">press release</a>.About three minutes or so after the collision, a shoebox-sized CubeSat developed by the Italian Space Agency, the LICIACube, will be taking high-resolution images of the event. On September 11, the CubeSat left the spacecraft and is now at a safe distance of about 34 miles from the surface of Dimorphos. The imagery captured by the small satellite will be streamed back to Earth in the weeks following the collision.<div type="image" title="Infographic showing the effect of DART's impact on the orbit of Dimorphos." height="1824" width="3120" msid="94501319" hostid="261"></div>"Even after DART is gone, images traveling through space will continue to come back for about eight seconds," Ed Reynolds, DART's project manager, told reporters on Thursday. <h1>What's next after DART's deliberate crash</h1>Once DART has been destroyed during the collision, follow-up observations with ground- and space-based telescopes will evaluate the asteroid system to see how much its orbit changed. The mission's data will provide astronomers with important information about how well spacecraft could protect Earth from an incoming asteroid, and inform any adjustments that need to be made to the probe.Two years after DART's collision with Dimorphos, the European Space Agency will launch a mission called Hera to study Didymos and Dimorphos in depth. By observing the deformations caused by the impact, the spacecraft aims to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos' composition and formation.This story has been updated with new information. It was originally published on September 23, 2022.

NASA is intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid on Monday. Here's how to watch the collision live.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> is sending a spacecraft to slam into a distant <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-hit-ancient-middle-eastern-city-inspired-sodom-bible-story-2021-9">asteroid</a>, nudging the <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword> rock into a new orbit.</li><li>The mission is testing a method NASA could use to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">divert city-killing asteroids</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-advances-asteroid-tracking-space-telescope-after-years-of-limbo-2021-6">headed for Earth</a>.</li></ul>NASA is about to launch a new space probe on a long journey to self-destruction.The mission, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (<keyword id="12574842" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="dart" source="Orion">DART</keyword>), is sending a spacecraft traveling nearly 7 million miles to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">slam itself into an asteroid</a>. The probe, a 4-foot-wide box, is a pebble compared to the enormous Colosseum-sized asteroid it's aiming for. But the impact should give the space rock enough of a nudge to change its path orbiting a larger asteroid.NASA is testing whether such a nudge could one day divert a rogue space rock headed for Earth. Scientists don't currently know of any dangerous Earth-bound <keyword id="12253294" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroids" source="Orion">asteroids</keyword>, but NASA estimates that they have only spotted about 40% of asteroids near Earth that are 140 meters (450 feet) or larger. Such an asteroid could level an entire city.<div type="image" title="asteroid dimorphos edited next to rome Colosseum showing they are the same size" height="2418" width="2000" msid="87821856" hostid="261"></div>DART is set to begin its journey at 1:20 a.m. ET on Wednesday, lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. If all goes according to plan, it will reach its destination in September 2022.NASA is livestreaming the launch on YouTube, starting at 12:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Watch, below:DART is a two-pronged test of a planetary-defense method, according to Tom Statler, a NASA astrophysicist working on the mission."The first test is testing our technological ability to hit the asteroid. And the second test is testing the response of a real asteroid to being hit. The first test ends and the second test starts at the moment that the spacecraft is smashed to bits," Statler told Insider. The asteroid's response to the impact will help NASA determine how large future probes should be in order to move their targets.<h2>NASA could save Earth from a city-killing asteroid — with 5 to 10 years' advanced notice</h2>For 10 months, DART will speed toward a pair of asteroids. One, a moonlet called Dimorphos, orbits the other, Didymos. DART is aiming for the moonlet. At 525 feet wide, it's much smaller than its 2,500-foot companion.Neither Didymos nor Dimorphos poses a threat to Earth. But they're ideal for testing what NASA calls the "kinetic impactor" method — crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid at high speeds to nudge it in a different direction.<div type="image" title="dart mission chart showing size of spacecraft and two asteroids compared to world landmarks" height="1667" width="3187" msid="87821858" hostid="261"></div>It's a tricky feat, given that DART won't be able to see Dimorphos until an hour before impact. But NASA engineers have programmed the spacecraft to quickly calculate the asteroid's center and steer itself towards that point.The spacecraft should hit Dimorphos's center at 15,000 miles per hour (4 miles per second), transferring its kinetic energy to the asteroid and pushing it closer to Didymos. NASA estimates that the impact will cause an explosion of between 22,000 and 220,000 pounds of rock material, which could give it an even bigger push than DART itself. In the end, Dimorphos should orbit the larger rock about 10 minutes faster than before.Although the impact will occur about 6.8 million miles from Earth, astronomers will be watching with their telescopes to see the asteroid's orbit change. If the method works, it could one day save Earth from a city-killing asteroid. But there's a catch. In order to use a DART-like mission to divert such a threat, experts <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">previously told Insider</a>, NASA probably needs about five to 10 years' advanced notice of an Earth-bound asteroid.<div type="image" title="technicians in white cleansuits inspect dart spacecraft four foot yellow box in white warehouse cleanroom" height="1505" width="2007" msid="87821860" hostid="261"></div>That's because it takes years to design and build a spacecraft, then months or years to travel to the asteroid. What's more, the probe would likely need to hit an asteroid a year or two before its orbit intersects with Earth. The slight nudge of a spacecraft impact would only take the rock slightly off course at first. But over time, that change would carry it away from Earth.In order to identify hazardous asteroids with enough lead time, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-advances-asteroid-tracking-space-telescope-after-years-of-limbo-2021-6">NASA is building a space telescope</a> called Near-Earth Object Surveyor to monitor asteroids 140 meters or larger. Right now astronomers have identified an estimated 40% of such asteroids that orbit the sun near Earth, but NASA hopes the telescope will bring that catalogue up to 90%.Astronomers on Earth will quickly be able to see whether DART worked. Then the European Space Agency plans to launch a follow-up mission, called Hera, to examine Didymos and Dimorphos in 2026. Hera will study the aftermath of the impact. It's set to map Dimorphos, precisely measure its mass, and examine the crater that DART leaves there.This post has been updated. It was originally published November 20, 2021.

Watch NASA launch a probe to smash into an asteroid. It's practice for pushing city-killing space rocks away from Earth.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>'s new spacecraft mission aims to smash into the asteroid Dimorphos to reduce its speed.</li><li>The asteroid will be slowed by a centimeter per second, but that's enough to change its orbit and eventual course.</li><li>Scientists are testing to see if this method can help Earth defend itself from future incoming <keyword id="12253294" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroids" source="Orion">asteroids</keyword>.</li></ul>NASA is preparing to launch a spacecraft that it wants to smash into an asteroid for planetary defense.The first-of-its-kind DART mission, or Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is set to launch at 10:20 p.m. Pacific Time on November 23, aboard a <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">Space</keyword>X Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, according to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-invites-media-to-launch-of-double-asteroid-redirection-test">NASA.</a> Scientists are testing if they can use the collision to alter the orbit of Dimorphos, a 525-foot long moonlet asteroid that's millions of miles away from Earth and slightly smaller than the Washington Monument. Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid called Didymos, which is almost half a mile long.Both asteroids are expected to come within roughly 6.8 million miles of Earth in September 2022, and the spacecraft is expected to reach Dimorphos - and crash into it - around the same time.The impact of the speeding spacecraft - moving at approximately 14,783 miles per hour - is expected to reduce Dimorphos' speed by about 1%. That may not seem substantial, but it's enough to alter the smaller asteroid's orbit, which scientists hope to observe from telescopes here on Earth.<h2>The purpose of DART is planetary defense</h2>DART's ultimate goal is to gain information on how space organizations can defend Earth from deadly asteroids hurtling towards us in the future."The Earth is hit by asteroids and pieces of asteroids all the time. Every year or so, we get hit by things the size of a table," said Andy Rivkin, DART's co-lead investigator from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNSYuY6N1Rs">2018 video</a> featured on the project's website.He said that objects like Dimorphos and Didymos hit Earth every few thousand years and are large enough to cause significant damage "on a regional scale."A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">3-mile-wide chunk of space ice</a> passed within 64 million miles of the planet in July. And in 2019, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flies-close-to-earth-surprising-scientists-2019-7">427-foot-wide "city-killer" asteroid that scientists had no idea about</a> until several days before it flew by came within 45 million miles of Earth. In comparison, the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was 6 miles wide.The DART mission, developed and led for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, uses a "low-cost" spacecraft that will be outfitted with two solar arrays making it a total 27.9 feet long, said the project website.The craft is equipped with a camera to help guide it to Dimorphos and an Italian-made satellite cube that will detach from the spacecraft before the impact and take pictures of the collision.A few years after the DART impact, the European Space Agency said its <a href="https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Hera">Hera mission</a> will investigate the project's effect on Dimorphos and its companion, Didymos.NASA has launched missions to hit asteroids before, aimed at gathering information about space objects. In 2005, it conducted the <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/deep-impact-epoxi/in-depth/">Deep Impact mission</a> to hit the comet Tempel 1, which it observed for eight years before it lost communication with the spacecraft.The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab team did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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