There have been many tales through the years of how asteroids have come near hitting Earth. The most up-to-date was actually last month the place the trajectory noticed the asteroid move over Antarctica inside 1,800 miles of Earth, which makes it one of many closest encounters we’ve needed to date.

However, what if in the future an asteroid’s trajectory was to collide with Earth, what then? That’s one thing we most likely shouldn’t wait to determine, which is why SpaceX and NASA are working collectively to check its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) program tomorrow on the twenty third of November at 10:21pm PT.

NASA will deliberately crash the DART spacecraft into an asteroid to see if that’s an efficient approach to change its course, ought to an Earth-threatening asteroid be found sooner or later

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2021

This is the place a spacecraft might be deliberately launched into an asteroid to see if the crash might be efficient sufficient to vary the trail of an asteroid ought to in the future it ever finds itself in a path headed immediately in direction of Earth. The precise crash itself gained’t happen tomorrow, however relatively on the 2nd of October, 2022 which is when the spacecraft is anticipated to intercept the binary asteroid often known as Didymos.

Now, take into account that Didymos was by no means an asteroid that was certain for Earth to start with, however relatively it was chosen because the take a look at topic for DART. To date, NASA has already identified at least 23 objects that might probably collide with our planet within the subsequent 100 years, so it’s higher to be protected than sorry.

Filed in General. Read extra about NASA, Space and Spacex. Source: engadget