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This is how the world ends

Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2022 11:27 am
by UKHamlet
On September 26th, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test will be crashing into the moon of Asteroid Didymous. If all goes well, the spacecraft will strike the asteroid with so much force that it changes its orbit a tiny bit, enough that astronomers can calculate the change in its orbital trajectory. They'll use this experiment to learn more about what it might take to protect Earth if a dangerous asteroid is discovered that could strike the Earth.

Ground and space-based observatories will be watching the impact, and DART has released a tiny Cubesat that'll observe the event and send the data home to Earth. Of course, NASA will broadcast the event live, so make sure you tune in and watch the drama unfold as we see the spacecraft's final sequence of images leading up to the impact.

Nothing can possibly go wrong.

Re: This is how the world ends

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 12:22 am
by Galfon
Interesting pile of boulders minding their own business - then biff.
So many group hugs..

Re: This is how the world ends

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 8:49 am
by BBD
Sending thoughts, prayers and duct tape

Re: This is how the world ends

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:28 am
by Which Tyler
It's a very American solution

Hmm that rock looks a bit suspicious
Quite dark too
Let's shoot it

Re: This is how the world ends

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:33 pm
by cashead
Just send a bunch of oil rig workers with a nuclear bomb to drill a hole into it and blow it up real good

Re: This is how the world ends

Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2022 1:58 am
by morepork
No data yet. Just pretty pictures, but by christ, what a view.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03067-y