It may sound like a scene from a
Hollywood sci-fi movie here on Earth.
We've rarely had to deal
with incoming asteroids,
making its way to earth, but NASA.
They are taking no chances.
In fact, overnight tonight,
NASA is going to launch the
double asteroid redirection test.
It's also known as dart,
so this is kind of an image
of what it's going to be.
It's the first of its
kind attempt to do this.
DART will test the idea of
deflecting an asteroid by
colliding with the small moon
lit in a double asteroid system.
So let's have the.
Expert tell us all about it.
One of the the deputy Director of
Planetary Science Division Arikian
said joining us good morning to Eric.
Good morning, happy to be here.
Oh, I'm so glad you're here
because we'd love to have you
explain what exactly is dart.
What is this mission going
to be attempting tonight?
So dark is the first ever planetary
defence mission in which we are trying
to alter the trajectory of an asteroid,
and in this case we're actually going
to run a spacecraft directly into
this asteroid and try and change its
motion enough so that we can measure
it accurately from telescopes on earth
and the particular asteroid that we
are trying to hit is called dimorphic.
It's actually a moonlit that's orbiting
around a slightly larger asteroid.
It's 530 feet in diameter,
so that's about the height of the
Washington Monument and asteroids of
this size present a hazard to Earth.
Now these particular asteroids do not,
but that's one of the reasons that we're.
That reason is because test,
so you'll be testing it and aiming
at a moonlit, so the smaller object.
Why exactly is that? And why
don't you go for the big asteroid?
Well, actually a dimorphodon
and the larger asteroid demos
are a binary asteroid system,
and this actually creates a where
this is where the smaller asteroid
orbits around the larger Astro.
OK, this actually creates a perfect
laboratory to run this test
because what we're able to do is,
since they since the smaller asteroid
has a relatively slow speed that it's
orbiting around the larger asteroid.
We're able to detect the change
in its motion relatively easily
in comparison to trying to track
the change in the in motion around
the sun of a larger asteroid,
and also the other thing that's
important is because dimorphism is
trapped in in orbit around demos.
By conducting this test,
we aren't really changing the
trajectory around the sun,
so we aren't creating a hazard
for Earth with this.
With those tests,
oh OK, so you don't want to risk that.
Of course Dimorphs did almost
now will become, I think,
kind of terms that people will hear about.
It seems because this is the first time
you guys are going to be attempting this.
Tell us Eric why is this so important to do?
I mean, are we actually going to be
threatened by asteroids here on Earth?
Is this a possibility that
you're hoping to prevent?
Well, one of the things that
you may be surprised to learn is
how common asteroid impacts are.
It's a naturally occurring
phenomenon in every day.
800 tons of material enters
the race atmosphere,
and typically these are pieces
of dust and and small meteors,
and they burn up in the atmosphere
relatively quickly and thankfully
no known asteroids are large enough
to penetrate our atmosphere that
we know of in the next 100 years,
however, the heating is the
ones that we don't know about,
and there are many asteroids that are
out there that we have not discovered yet.
It's really important for us to
to make sure that we can find
those asteroids and then have
techniques so that if we need them,
an asteroid is coming towards her.
We have a way in which we can deflect it
and prevent it from hitting the Earth,
and I mean it's not like
they're moving slow, right?
They're not necessarily going
to give us a big warning.
Hey, we're coming right.
I mean, tell us about that it
couldn't enter our atmosphere
by surprise, perhaps.
Well, typically will have some
idea when something is coming,
especially the larger it is.
But there are asteroids that are
have very low visibility that
are hard to be able to track and
so it's really important for us.
We're working with other other
federal agencies matches with other
federal agencies and countries around
the world to be able to better
track and categorize all of these.
These asteroids that are out there so
that we have a good warning system in
place such that we can develop emission.
To be able to intercept it if we need to
OK and it will ask too.
I wanted to ask Eric also
why you're redirecting.
In fact, I just want to point
out on this imagery that we have
here that you guys sent us.
You know it's gonna be nudging this moonlit,
as Eric was saying, and that's the
bigger asteroid right there in the middle.
So why are we re directing
and not blowing it up?
If you can explain?
Yeah, So what will happen?
Asteroid that's headed toward
Earth is a really bad idea,
because right now you have.
If you have one large object headed
towards Earth and you blow it up,
then you've got thousands or these
things heading towards Earth.
And that's really bad.
Yeah, please don't do that.
What we really want to do is just give
it a slight next if you think about
the Earth orbits around the sun and
if something is coming towards it.
If you could just slow it down enough
then the Earth will safely pass
by and we won't have any issues.
And that's really what we want to do.
Just be able to make small
modifications so we're not creating
additional space debris,
but we're just slowing things
down or speeding things up such
that they will miss us.
Yeah, I think a lot of people I don't know.
I just got this app that allows
you to see where the stars are and
what's kind of in our skies and
we end up seeing a lot of space,
junk and debris and things like that.
Is that something you're
watching out for constantly?
Yeah, that's another thing that NASA
does and and and and other agencies
do as well is we try and track all
the things that are out there and
try to make sure that there aren't
collisions and you know our spacecraft
that are orbiting earth of when
we when there's a potential for a
hazard of one thing hitting another.
We we make, we make maneuvers in
order to be able to avoid them.
We are glad you're doing that.
Eric, yeah, really.
I mean the planetary defence with NASA.
You guys are doing very important
work stuff that hopefully means.
We're not going to hear about
these things coming towards Earth.
So just real quick before we go, Eric,
you know we're going to be obviously
watching this starting tonight,
but can people keep track of what
happens to die morfis after you know
you make them a little nudge happen?
Yeah, absolutely.
So that the the with the impact will
actually happen in September of 2022,
so we'll be talking more about it then.
But you can follow everything
that's happening in many places,
so NASA's website
nasa.gov/dart is a great
place to find information.
You also can follow us on your
favorite social media platforms
using the hashtag dark mission.
OK, and then tonight you
can watch us on NASA TV,
so lots of places for you
to get involved and.
Watch this mission.
OK, so it launches tonight where you
have it right there on our screen.
10:21 PM you see the website as
well and then September next year
that's when this could come together.
All right, Eric, thank you very
much for explaining this to us,
so I appreciate you breaking it down
in a way that's simpler to understand.
We appreciate you.
Thanks for having me go dart.
Yeah go dart dart mission. There you go.