DART's action-packed mission is a partnership involving instruments in space and on the ground.
But the work began even before DART launched in November 2021.
As the DART mission concept became a spacecraft, those observations continued. For DART, the most important result was precisely pinpointing how long it takes Dimorphos to orbit Didymos: 11 hours and 55 minutes. "Unfortunately, it's a point source, it's just a very fast moving dot moving across the background of stars," Thomas said."It might seem a little underwhelming, but to me, it's actually really a testament to how impressive our techniques have gotten, that we can take the information from this relatively small dot of light that's moving very quickly and pull so much information out of it.
Catching the moment of impact itself will be tricky, however."The impact will occur when Didymos is essentially over the Indian Ocean," Thomas said."So there's not as many ground-based facilities observing as one might expect."
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NASA's DART mission will crash spacecraft into asteroid in first-of-its-kind experimentIn the first-of-its-kind, save-the-world experiment, NASA is about to clobber a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away.
Read more »
DART asteroid crash: What time will NASA probe hit Dimorphos on Sept. 26?NASA's DART spacecraft will crash into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26 at 7:14 p.m. EDT. Here's how the day will unfold.
Read more »
NASA’s DART Mission Will Test Earth’s Defenses Against AsteroidsWatch: NASA’s DART spacecraft will intentionally collide with an asteroid on Monday, in an attempt to alter the space rock’s trajectory. The mission aims to test technology that could defend Earth against potential asteroid threats.
Read more »
Asteroid simulators show what could happen to Earth without NASA's DARTDART is the world's first full-scale mission to test technology for defending Earth against an asteroid or comet collision.
Read more »
DART: Why a NASA spacecraft will crash into an asteroidA NASA spacecraft is about to clobber a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away.
Read more »
NASA's DART mission will crash spacecraft into asteroid in first-of-its-kind experimentIn the first-of-its kind, save-the-world experiment, NASA is about to clobber a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away.
Read more »