NASA is set to launch a spacecraft today that will ram into an asteroid and purposefully change its orbit—part of a test mission that could prevent humanity from suffering the fate of the dinosaurs.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test consists of crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to shift its orbit, redirecting it away from Earth.NASA is set to launch a spacecraft on Tuesday that will ram into an asteroid, and purposefully change its orbit, as part of a test mission that could prevent humanity from suffering the fate of the dinosaurs.
MORE: Why some experts say corporate 'net-zero' emissions pledges could have net-zero impact on climate crisis "DART is a test of what we call a kinetic impactor," Rivkin said."We will ram DART into the moonlet Dimorphos, and the speed and mass of the spacecraft will transfer kind of the momentum into the moon and then that will change the orbit of the moon around Didymos."A graphic released by NASA shows the frequency and potential impact to life on Earth of various sizes of asteroids.
"This is the only natural disaster that humankind can do something about," Rivkin said of asteroid impacts."And this is our first attempt to kind of take that into our hands, to take our future into our hands that way."An artist's illustration obtained from NASA shows the DART spacecraft from behind prior to impact at the Didymos binary system.
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