On September 26 at 11.15 pm UTC, NASA's DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) will be the first to deliberately and measurably change the motion of a significant body in our Solar System.
aboard the craft on September 11. LICIACube will follow along and photograph the collision and its aftermath.
The results will tell us a lot about the nature of asteroids and our ability to change their motions. In the future, this knowledge could be used to planWhat is the level of threat? Such a hit is estimated to occur once every 100 years. While quite frequent, the overall risk is low and the impact risk is relatively low too.
So, potential asteroid collisions with Earth range from the frequent but benign to the very rare but catastrophic. The DART tests are being undertaken in a very relevant and interesting size range for asteroids: those greater than 100 meters.
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