DART Mission: Here's how NASA aims to deflect the gigantic asteroid for planetary defence

At 1:21 ET (11:50 AM) on vember 24, NASA launched ‘DART mission’ which is nearly a one-year journey to crash into an asteroid. first of its kind mission redefines ncy's approach to planetary defence and witnesses it releasing a car-size craft to deflect a gigantic asteroid which ncy says is "t a threat" to earth. Talking about mission, Justyna Surowiec, who works as a Public Affairs Official at John Hopkins University APL said that it is something that "impacts humanity" and people must kw about it.

"Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is NASA's first planetary defence test mission sending a craft to a double asteroid system and hit that smaller asteroid to see if we can nudge that asteroid in . Hitting asteroid is going to prove out wher if this techlogy is something we can rely on were re ever be a hazard facing planet," she said sharing an animated video explaining mission. 

As a part of mission, DART craft is poised to slam into a binary asteroid system consisting of Didymos which is a Greek word for “twin”. target is a half-mile across and its smaller companion is called Dimorphos which is a Greek word for “two forms” and is 530 feet across. DART will be using an automous targeting system in order to aim at Dimorphos and will hit it at a speed of nearly 4 miles per second. 

How will DART work?

As per ncy, intentional destruction will tell if slamming a craft is eugh to save earth in case gigantic rock hes towards planet in future. idea behind maiden mission is simple: DART is going to collide with object (Dimorphos) moving at roughly 15,000 miles per hour, transferring momentum to asteroid (Didymos). body slam should be eugh to nudge asteroid off its original path by a fraction of 1%.  

NASA, in an official statement, explained that telescopes on Earth will observe asteroid system while measuring change in Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos. It is also pertinent to te that Italian ncy-built ride-along on DART, called LICIACube will separate from DART before impact to observe collision.

Im: NASA