I hope they don't redirect that asteroid towards Earth 
www.nytimes.com
The spacecraft will plow into a space rock with the goal of demonstrating how an asteroid threatening Earth could be deflected.
Space rocks have hit Earth with devastating impact. Just ask the dinosaurs.
The good news: At present, astronomers do not know of any asteroids that have any chance of hitting Earth in the next century or so.
The bad news: Astronomers estimate they have not yet found another 15,000 or so near-Earth asteroids that are big enough to wipe out a city.
If an asteroid that is on a collision path with Earth is discovered, there could be a chance to divert it before it hits.
Thatās where NASAās Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft ā DART, for short ā comes in.
On Monday at 7:14 p.m. Eastern time, DART is set to crash into a small asteroid at 14,000 miles per hour.
This isnāt like the movie āArmageddonā ā no one is going to blow up an asteroid. Rather it is a proof of principle that colliding with a space rock and pushing it into a different orbit could be a feasible strategy for planetary defense.
NASA TV will broadcast coverage of the end of this mission beginning at 6 p.m..
If all you want to watch is a stream of photos from the spacecraft as it closes in on the asteroid, NASAās media channel started broadcasting those at 5:30 p.m. Or you can watch it in the video player above.
What We Learned From NASAās DART Mission (Published 2022)
The spacecraft plowed into a space rock with the goal of demonstrating how an asteroid threatening Earth could be deflected.
The spacecraft will plow into a space rock with the goal of demonstrating how an asteroid threatening Earth could be deflected.
Space rocks have hit Earth with devastating impact. Just ask the dinosaurs.
The good news: At present, astronomers do not know of any asteroids that have any chance of hitting Earth in the next century or so.
The bad news: Astronomers estimate they have not yet found another 15,000 or so near-Earth asteroids that are big enough to wipe out a city.
If an asteroid that is on a collision path with Earth is discovered, there could be a chance to divert it before it hits.
Thatās where NASAās Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft ā DART, for short ā comes in.
On Monday at 7:14 p.m. Eastern time, DART is set to crash into a small asteroid at 14,000 miles per hour.
This isnāt like the movie āArmageddonā ā no one is going to blow up an asteroid. Rather it is a proof of principle that colliding with a space rock and pushing it into a different orbit could be a feasible strategy for planetary defense.
NASA TV will broadcast coverage of the end of this mission beginning at 6 p.m..
If all you want to watch is a stream of photos from the spacecraft as it closes in on the asteroid, NASAās media channel started broadcasting those at 5:30 p.m. Or you can watch it in the video player above.
