A spacecraft constructed by Nasa is about to deliberately crash right into a small asteroid as a part of a planetary safety check mission.
While this asteroid – named Dimorphos – poses no risk to Earth, the intention of the mission is to show that harmful incoming rocks might be deflected by intentionally smashing into them.
The spacecraft, referred to as Double Asteroid Redirection Check (Dart), is anticipated to collide with the 170-metre extensive (560ft) asteroid at 00:14 UK time on September 27.
Dimorphos is a part of a binary asteroid system and orbits Didymos, which takes round 11 hours and 55 minutes.
However astronomers at Nasa are hoping that Dart, whereas destroying itself within the course of, will shorten this orbital interval by about 10 minutes.
Nasa mentioned: “Dart’s goal asteroid will not be a risk to Earth however is the right testing floor to see if this methodology of asteroid deflection – referred to as the kinetic impactor approach – can be a viable option to defend our planet if an asteroid on a collision course with Earth have been found sooner or later.”
There presently someplace round 27,000 asteroids in near-Earth orbit.
Rocks which can be 140 metres (460ft) and bigger in dimension and are available nearer than 4.7 million miles (7.5 million km) throughout orbit are classed as probably hazardous asteroids (PHAs).
The Dart mission would be the first ever full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection expertise.
The spacecraft lately captured its first photos of Didymos and Dimorphos utilizing an onboard instrument, referred to as the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Digital camera for Optical navigation (Draco).
It was about 20 million miles (32 million km) away from the asteroid system when it took the images in July.
It has taken 10 months for Dart to come back near Dimorphous after launching final November on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
The asteroids might be round 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometres) from Earth when the collision occurs.
Dart will speed up at about 15,000 miles per hour (24,140 kilometres per hour) earlier than colliding with Dimorphos.
This collision might be recorded by a briefcase-sized satellite tv for pc referred to as the Mild Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), which was supplied by the Italian Area Company.
LICIACube, which weighs simply 14 kg (31 lbs), hitched a experience with Dart into deep area earlier than lately separating from the spacecraft in a remaining farewell.
In 2024, the European Area Company (ESA) will launch its Hera spacecraft, which is able to go on a two-year journey to the asteroid system to assemble data within the aftermath of the crash.
ESA mentioned: “By the point Hera reaches Didymos, in 2026, Dimorphos can have achieved historic significance: the primary object within the Photo voltaic System to have its orbit shifted by human effort in a measurable means.”