NASA’s DART Spacecraft Test Happening 5 p.m. Today!

LANL News:

NASA’s DART spacecraft test is happening today and will impact around 5 p.m. (mountain time).

The DART Mission is an experiment to change the orbital path of an asteroid. A kinetic impactor will strike Dimorphos, a small asteroid orbiting a larger asteroid, Didymos.

The goal is to change the orbital path of Dimorphos.

Cathy Plesko, a Planetary Defense Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), explains the method they are testing to deflect the asteroid. If successful, Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos should change by about 10 minutes.

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory created asteroid-impact simulations for DART using high-performance computers to simulate the impact.

DART is testing asteroid deflection in case it was ever needed for planetary defense. 

Plesko is part of NASA’s DART Investigation Team.

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