NASA's DART spacecraft will crash into an asteroid tonight in historic planetary defense test

atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 23, 2021, and has since been traveling the 7 million miles to Didymos and Dimorphos.

As DART approaches Dimorphos, it will use its sole instrument, the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation , to autonomously navigate to its impact zone. Considering that scientists estimate Dimorphos has a diameter of just 560 feet , that's no easy task. "Dimorphos is a tiny asteroid," Tom Statler, the mission's program scientist at NASA, said during the news conference."We've never seen it up close, we don't know what it looks like, we don't know what the shape is. And that's just one of the things that leads to the technical challenges of DART. Hitting an asteroid is a tough thing to do."

For context, Elena Adams, DART mission systems engineer at JHUAPL, said that DRACO won't even spot Dimorphos until about an hour before impact, at which point it'll be just one pixel in DRACO's field of view."At three minutes prior to impact, two minutes prior to impact, it is 42 pixels in size," Adams said during the news conference.

Hi

I have never been this excited for a spacecraft to crash.

Amazing view right before impact!

This is how great Sci fi films begin

570kg spacecraft vs 5 billion kg asteroid. I don’t see DART making much of a difference honestly.

Changing the eco system of the asteroid sounds kinda scary tbh

you still have time to avoid it

Wait... how did they get the DART into space?

Ha ha ha where fiction never ends.

I will watch live but I don’t believe it can be done.

I want see your crash

Anyone else secretly hoping it goes like that episode of RedDwarfHQ ?

So cool.

Praying that things goes well up there … mistakes happen… watch out earth 🌍

Lmao this is starting to get so ridiculous

I wish you good aim

Looks like a Photoshop

Hey! Asteroid aliens, ever get that NASA DART feeling

hey NASA Richard C. Hoagland is on to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it isn't an asteroid! it's an ancient space ship !

the_cosmosphere Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. 🤣

Hope the last image we see isn't a cute alien suddenly jerking his head up saying WASSAT!

Didn't they train the driver ?

Josep_Trigo Buenas tardes, Josep, le escribo de Antena 3. Podría contactarme por favor en este correo? lydiab15hotmail.com

SpeakingSatan For the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky...

Anyone that has ever seen a disaster movie knows the Dart spacecraft is going to knock this harmless asteroid into a direct collision course with Earth.

i working out de paper. preacher of atoms on text , of proton the coms from a dropout that dd of db preacher ./..

If the shut go to the center of the asteroid sure It Will do a flip but endure the trayectory this adteroids

What about the thousands of space debris that will be generated?

Poor dimorphos

Let's see

majogm Nooooooo!!

for what drop now

10hrs from now.

majogm

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NASA will crash a spacecraft into an asteroid on Monday and you can watch it through telescopes onlineSpace.com contributing writer Stefanie Waldek is a self-taught space nerd and aviation geek who is passionate about all things spaceflight and astronomy. With a background in travel and design journalism, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University, she specializes in the budding space tourism industry and Earth-based astrotourism. In her free time, you can find her watching rocket launches or looking up at the stars, wondering what is out there. Learn more about her work at www.stefaniewaldek.com. Why would they do that Espero que tras el impacto no lo desvíen hacia la tierra. 😂😄 🫣
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