Thanks Red Badger.
Posted on 09/26/2022 6:19:34 AM PDT by Red Badger
After 306 days, DART's mission will come to an end when it slams into a Colosseum-sized asteroid 7 million miles from Earth.
VIDEO AT LINK..............
This animation shows what it might look like when DART dives into the Didymos dirt.
ESA–ScienceOffice.org
In less than 12 hours, NASA's DART spacecraft will be no more. After launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 on Nov. 24, 2021, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test probe will make its final death dive into the asteroid Dimorphos on Monday, Sept. 26, colliding with the space rock at about 14,000 miles per hour.
We've got all the info you need to watch the grand finale live right here, including livestream links from two cameras in deep space.
First, we should reiterate there's no need to be alarmed. The asteroid Dimorphos, which circles a larger asteroid known as Didymos, poses no threat to Earth. The mission is designed as a test run of planetary defense with the intention of proving that a deep space collision can alter the orbit of a space rock. The carefully arranged death dive will destroy the DART and, if all goes to plan, alter the orbit of Dimorphos around its parent Didymos ever so slightly.
In recent weeks, the team from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory have been assessing the asteroid pair from a distance, making sure we have a firm understanding of the asteroids' orbits. Once DART has been destroyed, ground-based space telescopes will evaluate Didymos and Dimorphos to see just how much the orbit has changed.
The $308 million spacecraft's lone instrument is the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) and it will be switched on for final dive, taking a photograph every second. Another tiny satellite, which snuck out of DART on the way to its target, will also be watching.
About three minutes or so after the collision, the shoebox-size cube (known as the Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging Asteroids) will take high-res photos of the crash site and the damage done to the 525-foot asteroid. Another mission, scheduled to launch in 2024, will also rendezvous with Didymos sometime in 2026.
But that's for later, for now, here's how you can see DART's demise.
How to watch NASA's DART coverage NASA's DART death is primetime viewing on Monday, happening just a few hours before the big Monday Night Football matchup between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys.
The spacecraft will collide with Dimorphos at 4:14 p.m. PT/7:14 p.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 26. Live coverage is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET via NASA TV.
Our YouTube channel, CNET Highlights, will have two streams. The main livestream and a feed from the spacecraft's DRACO camera. NASA notes that the feed will mostly be black once it switches on, but as the spacecraft approaches, the asteroid pair will come into view. It should be pretty thrilling.
Here's how that time translates to different zones:
US: Sep. 26, 4:14 p.m. PT/7:14 p.m. ET
Brazil: Sep. 26 , 8:14 p.m. (Federal District)
UK: Sep. 26, 11:14 p.m.
South Africa: Sep. 27, 1:14 a.m.
Russia: Sep. 27, 2:14 a.m. (Moscow)
United Arab Emirates: Sep. 27, 3:14 a.m.
India: Sep. 27, 4:44 a.m.
China: Sep. 27, 7:14 a.m.
Japan: Sep. 27, 8:14 a.m.
Australia: Sep. 27, 9:14 a.m. AEST
Sounds awesome. Where can I find out more about DART?
When DART launched back in November 2021, CNET's Monisha Ravisetti put together this handy explainer about the mission and its goals. The team at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory also has a ton of resources about the mission, including handy interactives and the latest updates.
Make sure to check back here for the livestream links closer to launch and check out CNET Science for more space stories.
First published on Sept. 20, 2022 at 9:45 p.m. PT.
Latest Norad radar pic.
But you have to remember that the space ship was built with 300,000 parts all made by the lowest bidder.
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission finished yesterday in a spectacular crash into the Asteroid Dimorphos.Asteroid Smashing Looks Like Nothing You Ever Imagined | Scott Manley | September 27, 2022
Clearly, Acme doesn’t deliver out that far.
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