1/22/2024 0 Comments Nasa tv schedule![]() Watch our LIVE broadcast at 6pm ET: /czGqnYJIGJ Today, our #DARTMission is set to crash into a non-hazardous asteroid to test deflection technology, should we ever discover a threat. ![]() □️ This is only a test – of planetary defense. Smaller asteroids are more common and therefore a greater concern in the near term, making the Didymos pair suitable test subjects for their size, according to NASA scientists and planetary defence experts. The target was an asteroid “moonlet” that orbits an asteroid about five times larger, called Didymos. “If this works, then we know we can use that same technology to deflect asteroids that might pose an actual threat further down the line,” Tanya Harrison, a fellow at the Outer Space Institute in Seattle told Al Jazeera.Ī camera sent back images during the final approach and collision. The asteroid did not post a risk to Earth, but the test marks the first effort to change the trajectory of an asteroid using only kinetic force, and scientists hope that the method could be used to nudge asteroids and prevent cataclysmic collisions. “It’s the final cosmic collision countdown,” tweeted mission control at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the US state of Maryland. There was a heightened sense of anticipation as the craft approached its target. The DART spaceship launched from California in the United States last November, and has made most of its journey with the guidance of NASA flight directors. “This is a challenging test, and this is why we’re taking these first steps now to develop this technology before we need it,” Nancy Chabot, the mission coordination lead, told Al Jazeera hours before the scheduled impact. Its success will not be known until further ground-based telescope observations are completed next month. ![]() The DART feed cuts out as the craft smashes into the asteroid to the delight of the NASA team in the control room The mission was devised to determine whether a spacecraft can alter the trajectory of an asteroid through sheer kinetic force, nudging it off course just enough to keep Earth out of harm’s way. “Impact confirmed for the world’s first planetary defense test mission,” said a graphic that appeared on the live stream. The US space agency livestreamed the test from the mission operations centre outside Washington, DC, showing images taken by DART’s own camera as the cube-shaped “impactor” vehicle, no bigger than a vending machine with two rectangular solar arrays, careered into Dimorphos, an asteroid about the size of a football stadium.Ĭheers could be heard from engineers in the control room as second-by-second images of the target asteroid grew larger and ultimately filled the TV screen of NASA’s live webcast just before the spacecraft’s signal was lost, confirming it had crashed into Dimorphos. Keep reading list of 3 items list 1 of 3 ‘Planetary defence’: NASA targets asteroid in space collision list 2 of 3 NASA launches ‘suicide’ spacecraft to kick asteroid off course list 3 of 3 Three tonnes of space junk on a collision course with the moon end of list ![]()
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