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| Credit: NASA |
On Monday, September 26, at 7:14 p.m. EDT, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the first mission to test equipment for protecting Earth from prospective asteroids or comet threats, will strike its target asteroid, which poses no threat to Earth.
NASA will provide a broadcast briefing on September 26 starting at 6 p.m. from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, among other things. The DART spacecraft is constructed and operated by APL on behalf of NASA.
This test will demonstrate how a spaceship may find a target asteroid on its own and purposefully collide with it to alter the asteroid's speed in a way that can be detected by telescopes on the ground. Should an asteroid ever be found, DART will offer crucial information to aid in properly preparing for an impact threat to Earth.
Activities for DART's collision with the asteroid Dimorphos are listed below (all times Eastern):
12 September, Monday
- At APL, NASA will conduct a hybrid media day at 9 a.m. that will highlight the technology that allows the DART spacecraft to find and strike its target asteroid on its own. Leaders from NASA and the DART mission crew are among the attendees. The DART mission operations centre at APL, located at 11100 Johns Hopkins Road in Laurel, Maryland, will be open for tours for those who are present.
22 September, Thursday
- A media event will be held at NASA Headquarters at 3 p.m. to discuss DART's final operations before hitting Dimorphos. Senior officials from NASA and APL will participate in the media briefing, which will be held at the Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in the Mary W. Jackson building, 300 E. Street, SW in Washington.
- 6 p.m. - NASA TV and the organization's website will broadcast live coverage of DART's collision with the asteroid Dimorphos. Additionally, the public has access to live streaming on the Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube profiles of the agency.
- DART collides kinetically with the asteroid Dimorphos at 7:14 p.m.
- Following the successful impact of DART with the asteroid Dimorphos, mission experts will address the media in a briefing at 8 p.m. at the Johns Hopkins APL. By Monday, September 26 at 12 p.m., media who are interested in receiving information on remote participation must RSVP to alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov.
