Asteroid Redirect Mission

In 2029, a large asteroid will whizz past Earth so close it’ll be visible to the naked eye. But could collisions with other asteroids bounce it off-course into us? To find out, astronomers have now crunched the paths of 1.3 million known asteroids.

When NASA's DART deep space probe smashed into the asteroid Dimorphos, it didn't leave a crater. Instead, there was a splash, where the asteroid was distorted like a jelly as its entire structure shifted.

In September, NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid to test a potential planetary defense technique. To mark the publication of four scientific papers, NASA has released a video of the impact captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Radio waves from Alaska have been transmitted to an asteroid passing just two lunar distances away from the Earth. The information gathered could arm scientists with information that may be critical in defending the planet from a collision some day.

The collision between NASA’s DART spacecraft and the asteroid Dimorphos was always going to be a spectacle. By analyzing data from telescopes and tiny satellites nearby, scientists are now piecing together some fascinating details around the event.

Astronomers have been keenly watching the asteroid Didymos since the historic DART mission successfully crashed a spacecraft into it last month. And now, Hubble has detected something unexpected – the asteroid has sprouted two tails.

Last month, NASA purposely crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to knock it off course, and the results are now in, with scientists confirming the orbit of Dimorphos around its parent asteroid was shortened by 32 minutes.

Last week, NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, and now images have been released of the collision and aftermath from a suite of telescopes – including Hubble and James Webb in their first collaboration. One even shows a new 10,000-km tail.

Dozens of Earth-based telescopes were trained on the Dimorphos asteroid as it was struck by NASA’s DART spacecraft yesterday, but scientists also had some eyes in the sky – a CubeSat satellite deployed specifically to photograph the event.

An audacious planetary defense mission reached a historic crescendo today, with a NASA probe spectacularly crashing into the asteroid Dimorphos in an important rehearsal for how we might deflect hazardous asteroids in the future.

Today, NASA will explore a planetary defense technique through a world-first mission to crash into the asteroid Dimorphos and alter its orbit. We checked in with the team behind this landmark mission to understand some of the mechanics at play.

NASA has launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission to demonstrate a way to deflect potentially dangerous asteroids. The robotic probe lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket and is set to intercept its target in late September 2022.