NASA ASTEROID WATCH LIVE UPDATE

This asteroid system is a perfect testing ground to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future. DART’s target asteroid is NOT a threat to Earth. DART is a spacecraft designed to impact an asteroid as a test of technology. The DART impact broadcast will be covered with commentary. The first video covers DART’s approach to the asteroid and the second video will show the impact of the spacecraft with the asteroid. The stream you’re watching is a real-time feed from the DART spacecraft enabled through the DRACO camera sending one image per second to Earth. This should change its orbit around a much larger asteroid, called Didymos, by just a few minutes every day. DRACO serves as the spacecraft’s eye and will guide DART to its final destination: impact with asteroid Dimorphos. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) mission will check out this theory with a near-head-on crash into 160m-wide Dimorphos at over 20,000km/h. DART has one single instrument onboard – the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation, aka the DRACO camera. South West News Service writer Dean Murray contributed to this report.HOUSTON, TEXAS – Watch NASA’s live feed from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft on approach to and impact with Asteroid Dimorphos. THIS PICTURE: NASA real-time visualization of asteroid 2023 DW. In September 2022, NASA crashed the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into the Dimorphos asteroid. The mission aim was to test a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects (NEOs) and assess how much a spacecraft impact deflects an asteroid through its transfer of momentum when hitting the asteroid head-on.Ī live simulation of asteroid 2023 DW’s predicted path is streaming on NASA’s Eyes On Asteroids. On a larger scale, the asteroid thought to have wiped out dinosaurs was believed to have been between 10 and 15 kilometers wide. The impact site, known as the Chicxulub crater, is centred on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. THIS PICTURE: NASA real-time visualisation of asteroid 2023 DW with Earth and Moon. It caused a 12-megaton explosion that flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 km2 (830 sq mi). Eyewitness reports suggest that at least three people may have died in the event. In 1908, a similarly-sized asteroid of about 50–60 meters (160–200 ft) exploded over a sparsely populated Eastern Siberian forest. However, if the asteroid does hit it would not likely cause a global catastrophe. The space agency says the asteroid has an average diameter of 49m and is currently 0.12 astronomical unit (au) - or 11 billion miles 0- from Earth. One au (astronomical unit) is approximately the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. (1/2) /SaLC0AUSdPĬould asteroid 2023 DW really end the world? Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future. We've been tracking a new asteroid named 2023 DW that has a very small chance of impacting Earth in 2046. Watch Dart hit the asteroid in NASAs official livestream here NASA predicts there will be around a 90 chance of the mission being a success.

NASA ASTEROID WATCH LIVE UPDATE

“We’ve been tracking a new asteroid named 2023 DW that has a very small chance of impacting Earth in 2046,” the tweet explains. “Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future. Orbit analysts will continue to monitor asteroid 2023 DW and update predictions as more data comes in.” They’ve pinpointed Februas the likely closest approach. NASA’s Asteroid Watch on Twitter announced they are keeping an eye on the newly-discovered space rock that could potentially smash into our planet. Scientists at NASA warn an asteroid will be buzzing by Earth, raising eyebrows among folks predicting the end of the world. WASHINGTON - Valentine’s Day in 2046 could wind up being the most romantic one of all-time - for all the wrong reasons.

Nasa asteroid watch live