Article Title: DART mission
27-09-2022
Science & Technology Prelims Plus
Why is on news? NASA’s DART spacecraft successfully crashed into asteroid Dimorphos
The Dimorphos, a 160-metre-tall asteroid was successfully crashed by the DART mission of NASA on 26th September, 2022.
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects (NEOs).
DART was the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid's motion in space through kinetic impact.
It is a vending machine-sized spacecraft launched from Earth in November 2021, the probe impacted the minor-planet moon Dimorphos. The asteroid selected for the test poses no actual threat to Earth.
DART is a joint project between NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
The DART mission intentionally crashed on an asteroid to test a unique defence technology.
The crash is aimed at giving Earth a defence tool against future asteroids headed our way.
The 325 million dollar project was the first attempt to move a natural object in space but it will take days or perhaps weeks to assess how much the asteroid's path was altered.
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