Template:POTD/2024-11-24
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, abbreviated as DART, was a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects. The target asteroid, Dimorphos, is a minor-planet moon of the asteroid Didymos. DART was launched on 24 November 2021 and had successfully collided with Dimorphos on 26 September 2022 about 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth. The collision shortened Dimorphos' orbit by 32 minutes and was achieved by the momentum transfer associated with the recoil of the ejected debris, which was larger than the impact. This video is captured by a 20-centimeter aperture camera called the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) and shows a compiled time lapse of DART's final 5 and a half minutes until impact.credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory