A NASA-built spacecraft will intentionally crash into an asteroid as a part of a check mission later this month.
The spacecraft, often called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart), is predicted to collide with a 170-metre extensive (560ft) asteroid named Dimorphos at 12.14am UK time on 27 September.
Dimorphos is not any risk to Earth nevertheless it has been chosen to assist show that harmful incoming rocks will be deflected by deliberately crashing one thing into them.
Dimorphos orbits Didymos in round 11 hours and 55 minutes however astronomers at NASA hope that Dart will destroy itself and reduce about 10 minutes off this time.
NASA mentioned: “Dart’s target asteroid is not a threat to Earth but is the perfect testing ground to see if this method of asteroid deflection – known as the kinetic impactor technique – would be a viable way to protect our planet if an asteroid on a collision course with Earth were discovered in the future.”
Dart will go at speeds of about 15,000 miles per hour earlier than it collides with Dimorphos, which will probably be about 6.8 million miles from Earth on the time.
It would be the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection know-how and will probably be recorded by an Italian Space Agency satellite tv for pc referred to as the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids.
In 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) will ship its Hera spacecraft on a two-year journey to look at the aftermath.
The ESA mentioned: “By the time Hera reaches Didymos, in 2026, Dimorphos will have achieved historic significance: the first object in the Solar System to have its orbit shifted by human effort in a measurable way.”
Source: information.sky.com”