How Will We Know if NASA’s DART Mission Successfully Changed an Asteroid’s Orbit?

How Will We Know if NASA’s DART Mis­sion Suc­cess­ful­ly Changed an Asteroid’s Orbit?

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#NASAs #DART #Mis­sion #Suc­cess­ful­ly #Changed #Aster­oids #Orbit

NASA’s Dou­ble Aster­oid Redi­rec­tion Test, also known as DART, is humanity’s first attempt to change the motion of a non-haz­ardous aster­oid in space by inten­tion­al­ly crash­ing a space­craft into it. After impact, ground-based obser­va­to­ries across the globe will turn their eyes to the skies to deter­mine if this plan­e­tary defense test was suc­cess­ful. In this video, NASA vis­its Low­ell Obser­va­to­ry to learn more about how astronomers have been track­ing this dou­ble aster­oid over the course of many years, and how they will doc­u­ment the orbital change post-impact.

DART is a space­craft designed to impact an aster­oid as a test of tech­nol­o­gy. DART’s tar­get aster­oid is NOT a threat to Earth. This aster­oid sys­tem is a per­fect test­ing ground to see if inten­tion­al­ly crash­ing a space­craft into an aster­oid is an effec­tive way to change its course, should a haz­ardous aster­oid be dis­cov­ered in the future.

For more on DART, visit 

Cred­it: NASA