NASA has launched a £300m SpaceX rocket to test if it could change the direction of an asteroid set to hit Earth in a bid to improve planetary defence.
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is set to collide with the asteroid 11km above the Indian Ocean tomorrow at 12.14am. DART will hit the asteroid named Dimorphos at four miles per second. If the experiment is successful the asteroid will be deflected meaning there could be a potential planet defensive system if one should ever be found on a collision course with Earth.
The 163-meter-wide asteroid, which is larger than The Great Pyramid of Giza, is circulating a larger asteroid called Didymos which is 780 meters in diameter. This is more than twice the size of the Eiffel Tower. It is not a danger to Earth and when Dimorphos is hit by DART it will raise a cloud of debris and slow its orbit around a larger asteroid.
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Once it collides the half-tone probe, which costs £300m will obliterate into pieces. A perfected positioned collision could avoid human extinction the way the dinosaurs were wiped out.
The collision will be captured on the LICIACube. This is a camera which was attached to the probe and was scheduled to be separated 10 days before the intended impact. This alongside a sky full of telescopes will observe the asteroids before and after the probe hits.
The Space X 9 rocket was launched in November last year from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. £300m is being spent on this planetary defensive experiment because of an explosion in 2013. Despite hundreds of telescopes constantly scanning the skies an undetected asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere.
The asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia which caused an airburst and shockwave that hit six cities around the region. The explosion injured more than 1,600 people and caused more than £25m in damage. The asteroid which hit Chelyabinsk was 18 meters wide. Dimorphos is nine times bigger.
DART is the world's first-ever mission dedicated to investigating one method of asteroid deflection through impact.
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