This one is for Earth-murdering comet genre fans. If you liked Armageddon, you’re going to love this press release from NASA. It’s real. I promise.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, will impact its target asteroid (which poses no threat to Earth) at 7:14 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 26. This test will show that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be measured using ground-based telescopes. DART will provide important data to help NASA better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one be discovered.
Among other activities, NASA will host a televised briefing beginning at 6 p.m. on Sept. 26 from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. APL is the builder and manager of the DART spacecraft for NASA. You can see the full list of media activities here.
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