The demise of DART is lastly upon us, because the NASA spacecraft is on a collision course with the tiny Dimorphos asteroid. Here’s how one can watch this vastly vital experiment to deflect an asteroid.

Short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, the DART mission is the primary take a look at of kinetic impactor know-how as a way of deflecting asteroids that may very well be headed in direction of Earth. Although Didymos means no hurt to our planet, the epic crash may someday defend our planet from an Earth-bound asteroid. Loads is resting on this astronomical encounter, and right here’s how one can watch the motion stay.

The DART spacecraft is scheduled to impression its goal asteroid on Monday at 7:14 p.m. ET. NASA will stay stream the occasion on the house company’s YouTube channel, the NASA app, and the company’s website. Or you’ll be able to keep proper right here and tune into the NASA broadcast by the feed beneath.

Live protection of the mission will start at 6 p.m. ET, and it’ll characteristic audio from NASA’s mission management, stay commentary, in addition to photographs beamed down by the spacecraft’s onboard high-resolution digital camera, DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation).

Excitingly, NASA can be offering a silent stay feed from DRACO that’s set to start at 5 p.m. ET on NASA’s media channel. DRACO will hold rolling till it lastly smashes into Dimorphos, relaying one picture per second again to floor controllers on Earth. You can even tune in to the DRACO feed by the stay stream beneath.

DART is careening in direction of the asteroid at speeds reaching 14,000 miles per hour (22,530 kilometers per hour). There could also be a slight lag between these photographs and what’s occurring within the management room because it takes about eight seconds for the pictures to seem on the display screen after they’ve been acquired and processed by mission management, NASA officers instructed reporters throughout a press briefing on Thursday. So even when mission management declares “impact ” or “loss of signal,” it might take a couple of seconds to see that mirrored in NASA’s protection. And by “see it happen” we assume that’ll be the sudden look of a clean display screen, signifying the destruction of the spacecraft.

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DART is NASA’s first planetary defense test mission. Its target is a tiny asteroid known as Dimorphos, a mini-moon that orbits a slightly larger asteroid called Didymos. The 1,376-pound DART probe is going to smash into Dimorphos in an attempt to alter its orbit around its larger counterpart. The purpose of the test is to experiment with kinetic impactor technology as a means of deflecting asteroids that could be headed towards Earth.

NASA keeps a close watch on 28,000 nearby asteroids. Although none of those asteroids currently pose a threat to Earth, we do need a plan in place should a massive space rock be headed towards our planet in the future. Didymos and its tiny companion Dimorphos pose no threat to Earth, and the test won’t cause the system to threaten our planet. The pair is roughly 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth.

NASA will use ground-based telescopes to monitor Dimorphos’s orbital trajectory after being smacked by the spacecraft, and to also measure the physical effects of the impact itself. At the scene, Europe’s LICIACube will monitor the event with its two onboard cameras, LUKE and LEIA. The Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb Space Telescope, and a camera onboard the Lucy spacecraft, will also attempt to monitor the event.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is planning a follow-up mission to the pair of space rocks; the space agency is scheduled to launch its Hera mission in 2024, which will rendezvous with Didymos by 2026 to study the impact crater left behind by DART, and any other changes made to the asteroid.

For now, DART’s POV will hopefully provide a breathtaking view of Dimorphos as it heads directly into the asteroid. It’ll be a sad end to the spacecraft, but data from the mission could eventually result in the tools needed to deflect a legitimately dangerous asteroid.

Additional reporting by George Dvorsky.

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