On September 26, NASA will attempt to re-route an asteroid – by sabotaging it. According to Forbes, the plan, called the Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART), involves crashing a 500-kilogram spacecraft into the binary asteroid 65803 Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos (nicknamed “Didymoon”).
Launched in November 2021, DART will reach Didymos and Didymoon in September and will crash into Didymoon at about 15,000 mph.
However, didymos and didymoons pose no threat to Earth. NASA’s Dart mission is just an attempt to save Earth from other space rocks that could be more dangerous.
What is didymos?
According to Spcae.com, the pair of asteroids are known together as Didymos, but individually, the two rocks are Didymos and Dimorphos. Dimorphos also orbits Didymos, which orbits its larger twin every 11 hours and 55 minutes. Didymos is a larger asteroid (2,560 ft) while Dimorphos is 525 ft.
For decades, telescopes on Earth have been able to track that motion “like a clock”. As Dimorphos passes between Didymos and Earth, telescopes around the world can measure the resulting change in brightness from the system.
The clockwork speed of the Didymos system makes it ideal for Dart missions. NASA will move dangerous asteroids out of the way to avoid hitting Earth. Didymos itself poses no threat to Earth, but will serve as a test target.
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