NASA reveals exact time when its DART spacecraft will collide with asteroid on Sept 27

NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft is just a few days away from achieving its mission objective, which is intentionally ramming into an asteroid moonlet. US space agency revealed that historic milestone will be achieved in early hours of September 27, at 4:44 am IST to be precise (7:14 EDT on Sept 26). DART is currently heed toward a binary asteroid system and will intentionally collide with Dimorphous, a relatively small space rock orbiting asteroid Didymos.

How to watch collision live?

NASA will provide live coverage of collision through its official social media handles. coverage will begin at 3:30 am IST and will be aired live on NASA TV and agency's official website. You can also tune in to NASA's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for updates. 

Explaining DART mission concept

mission was launched on November 24 last year to determine wher slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid can change its trajectory. This wild idea aims to develop a defence system for Earth from any potentially hazardous asteroid that could come hurtling toward our planet and threaten our existence. asteroid in DART's focus is Dimorphous which is 160 metres or 530 feet wide and is orbiting Didymos (diameter of 780 metres or 2,560 feet) around 109.4 crore kilometres from our planet. 

(Illustration of DART's orbital path; Image: NASA)

On August 27, DART spacecraft will collide with Dimorphous at a speed of 23,760 kph and it will help scientists determine how feasible is idea of artificially deflecting an asteroid. 

Accompanying DART is European Space Agency's (ESA) Hera mission which will examine after-effects of collision. Hera will release two CubeSats-- Milani and Juventas-- that will perform close-up investigations of impact and send data back to Earth. y will also measure size of crater that might form after collision. 

Notably, a recent study by University of Bern and National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Planets revealed that spacecraft will completely obliterate Dimorphous as collision will be much more severe than anticipated. This conclusion was drawn considering  post-impact shock waves and loose core of asteroid moonlet.