Next 26 Sept. 2022, after a 10-month long journey, the Nasa's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft will reach the climax of its mission. It will impact on Dimorphos, the satellite of asteroid (65803) Didymos, to test its deflection by kinetic impactor. We will show you the target asteroid live, to hopefully spot any brightness increase after the collision!
The NASA's DART probe, impacting on its target asteroid Dimorphos, will be the first test ever of a planetary defence mission. The idea is to use the same technique in the future, just in case an asteroid will be found on a route of collision with the Earth. Testing this before the real need is vital.
As always, the Virtual Telescope Project wanted to bring to you such a unique opportunity: spying in real-time the target asteroid around the impact time, to hopefully record and see together any brightness increase due to collision. We spotted DART soon after it was launched in Nov. 2021, now we wanted to show you its final fate. Unfortunately, asteroid (65803) Didymos is currently too South in the sky to be seen from Italy, where are telescopes are installed.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday September 15 2022, @06:35PM (2 children)
bookmarked the site: will be excited to see.........something.........
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday September 15 2022, @06:38PM
Actually, the one video must be for idiots: they have to stop at one point and point out which is the dart and which is the booster (obviously tumbling/spinning).
Seems kind of like a Captain Obvious moment, to me.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 15 2022, @07:28PM
It should look something like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OSIRIS-REX_SamCam_TAGSAM_Event_2020-10-20_small.gif [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OSIRIS-REx-AsteroidBennu-TakingSample-20201020.webm [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]