9 Things to Know About NASA’s ‘Armageddon’ Mission to Deflect an Asteroid

When DART arrives at Didymos in 11 months, the spacecraft can be 6.8 million miles (11 million km) from Earth, according to NASA. Didymos, which is Greek for “twin,” measures 2,560 toes (780 meters) in diameter, whereas Dimorphos, which is Greek for “two forms,” measures 525 toes (160 meters) in diameter, which is simply shy of two soccer fields lengthy. The moonlet, also called Didymoon, is in orbit round Didymos, circling it as soon as each 11.9 hours.

To be crystal clear, neither Didymos or Dimorphos pose a threat to Earth. They don’t current a threat now, nor will they after the redirection check. NASA selected this explicit system because it was deemed ultimate for check functions. The smash-up “will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of one percent, but this will change the orbital period of the moonlet by several minutes—enough to be observed and measured using telescopes on Earth,” as NASA explained.

As it stands, no identified asteroid the scale of Dimorphos or bigger has a major likelihood of hitting Earth inside the subsequent 100 years. The concern, nevertheless, has to do with doubtlessly hazardous objects that abruptly seem out of the blue. Such was the state of affairs on this 12 months’s asteroid impression simulation, through which contributors have been advised of a fictional 460-foot-wide (140-meter-wide) asteroid with a 100% likelihood of hitting Earth in simply six months. This left them little or no time to react and put together. Asteroids of this measurement would inflict severe harm throughout a 120-mile-wide (200-kilometer-wide) radius ought to they hit Earth.