NASA is attempting nothing less than a full scale planetary defence experiment to change an asteroid’s path.
So, with this level destruction and the distance involved, how will we be able to see the crash? Luckily, the Dart spacecraft is not travelling alone on its quest, it is carrying, a shoebox-size mini spacecraft, known as a cubesat, developed by the Italian Space Agency and aerospace engineering company Argotec. This little companion has recently separated from the Dart spacecraft and is now travelling on its own to witness the impact at a safe distance of 55km.
Ground telescopes will aim to capture images of the Dimorphos’ eclipse as this happens. To cause a significant enough deflection, Dart must createafter impact – visible as changes in the frequencies of the eclipses. This is because we actually know very little of the asteroids’ composition. The great uncertainty around how strong Dimorphosis is has made designing a bullet spacecraft a truly enormous engineering challenge. Based on ground observation, the Didymos system is suspected to be aThere are also great uncertainties about the outcome of the impact. Material ejected afterwards will contribute to the effects of the crash, providing an additional force.
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