After traveling in the vacuum of space for over 10 months, the Dart mission has set its eye on the target, a binary asteroid system where it meets a fiery end. To test a novel strategy for saving Earth in the event that a hazardous asteroid is rushing toward us, the spaceship will crash on a moonlet of the binary system Didymos.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is the first mission in history to test technology for shielding Earth from asteroids and comets that could pose a threat. At a speed of 24,000 kilometres per hour, the spacecraft will slam into the Didymos binary asteroid system, significantly deviating and altering its orbit.
A suit of telescopes, both ground, and space-based, will be tracking the event. The James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Telescope will have their lenses trained on the collision set to happen in deep space. The autonomous spacecraft will collide to give Earth its tools against future hazards.
On Monday at 7:14 p.m. EDT, the asteroid and the DART spacecraft will collide. For those of us who reside in India, the collision will take place around 4:44 am IST on Tuesday.
If it works, the technique will be a crucial part of the planet’s defence against NEOs, which also includes identifying, tracking, and then striking them to alter their path of motion.
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