Home Science Ground-based telescopes are key to DART asteroid mission success

Ground-based telescopes are key to DART asteroid mission success

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Ground-based telescopes are key to DART asteroid mission success

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For NASA’s DART spacecraft, the drama happens in space — but mission success relies on telescopes back on Earth.

On Monday (Sept. 26), the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will slam into a small space rock called Dimorphos — on purpose, at a staggering 4 miles (6.6 kilometers) per second. The exercise comes in the name of planetary defense, which aims to protect human civilization from any large asteroid that may be on a collision course. For the mission to succeed, scientists need to measure exactly how much the orbit of Dimorphos around its larger companion, Didymos, speeds up. And the DART spacecraft won’t be in any shape to make that measurement itself, so mission personnel are relying on ground-based telescopes to track the aftermath of impact.



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