NASA will cause quite a stir in the cosmos Monday night, when an unmanned spacecraft is scheduled to crash into an asteroid millions of miles from Earth in a test of our planet’s ability to defend itself against asteroid and comet strikes.
Here’s a quick primer on NASA’s asteroid test — slated for impact at 7:14 p.m. — culled from Associated Press reporting, materials posted to the agency’s website, and social media channels.
What exactly will NASA send hurtling into the asteroid?
A spacecraft named Dart is scheduled to strike the asteroid head-on at 15,000 miles per hour. The impact should be enough to nudge the asteroid into a tighter orbit around its companion space rock, demonstrating that if a doomsday asteroid ever heads our way, we’d stand a fighting chance of diverting it.
Cameras and telescopes will watch the crash but it will take months to find out if it actually changed the orbit.
Which asteroid is getting hit?
The targeted asteroid is Dimorphos, about 7 million miles from Earth. It’s the sidekick of a 2,500-foot asteroid dubbed Didymos, Greek for twin. Dimorphos — roughly 525 feet across — orbits its parent body at a distance of less than a mile.
What are NASA leaders saying about the test?
Here’s what NASA Administrator Bill Nelson had to say about the test via Twitter.
“Tonight @NASA will crash an uncrewed spacecraft into an asteroid,” Nelson tweeted at 11:10 a.m. “On purpose. Yes, you read that correctly. And no, this is not a movie plot. The #DARTmission is the world’s first mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards!”
In a video clip, Nelson said the test represents a “giant step” in planetary defense.
“Because Dart, the double asteroid redirection test, [is] the world’s first mission to test the technology for defending earth against an incoming killer asteroid,” Nelson said.
Sounds exciting, but how does it work?
“Dart is going to intersect this asteroid about 7 million miles away,” Nelson continued. “And it’s an asteroid about the size of one of those pyramids in Egypt. And it’s going to hit it at 15,000 miles an hour. And we’re going to see if we can slightly move the trajectory of the asteroid. It’ll be a first test to help determine our response if we really do see an asteroid that’s out there threatening to hit Earth.”
Nelson said Americans have seen such doomsday scenarios play out in sci-fi blockbusters like the 1998 release “Armageddon.”
“But the real-life stakes are high,” Nelson said. “You know, life on the surface of Earth, including the dinosaurs, they were wiped out by an asteroid six miles wide that hit in the area of Earth near the Yucatán Peninsula. That wiped out the dinosaurs. So if that kind of threat were to come, and it were incoming, we’d be ready if we could find it far enough away, hit it, move its trajectory, so by the time it got to Earth, it would miss us.”
Can the public watch the test?
NASA will broadcast the test live via YouTube, beginning at 6 p.m.
NASA Television will also broadcast coverage beginning at 6 p.m.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.