DART Animation. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is the world’s first mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards. Today, Monday, September 26 at 7:14 p.m. EDT (4:14 p.m. PDT) DART will impact its target asteroid—which poses no actual threat to Earth.
Among other activities, NASA will broadcast a televised briefing beginning at 6 p.m. on September 26 from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. APL built and manages the DART spacecraft for NASA.
This planetary defense test will show that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be measured using ground-based telescopes. DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid or comet in the future that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one ever be discovered.
Illustration of NASA’s DART spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency’s (ASI) LICIACube prior to impact at the Didymos binary system. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins, APL/Steve Gribben
The following is a list of activities for DART’s impact with the asteroid Dimorphos (all times Eastern):
Monday, September 26 (DART Impact Day)
- 6 p.m. – Live coverage of DART’s impact with the asteroid Dimorphos will air on NASA TV and the agency’s website. The public also can watch live on agency social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
- 7:14 p.m. – DART’s kinetic impact with asteroid Dimorphos.
- 8 p.m. – Media briefing at Johns Hopkins APL to hear from mission experts immediately following DART’s successful impact with asteroid Dimorphos.
Become a Planetary Defender
Support the DART mission by becoming a “Planetary Defender!” Participants who take a short quiz can earn a certificate and badge that they can download, print, and share on social media.
“…DART will impact its target asteroid—which poses NO ACTUAL THREAT to Earth…”
Now WHAT could possibly go wrong?