How to watch NASA slam a spacecraft into an asteroid
You must see this unprecedented event.
NASA is about to intentionally slam a spacecraft the size of a vending machine into a space rock the size of a great Egyptian pyramid.
Incredibly, you can watch this unprecedented Sept. 26 event live.
The mission is called DART, or Double Asteroid Redirection Test, and it's humanity's first-ever attempt to purposefully move an asteroid. The rocky target, Dimorphos, is not a threat to Earth, but the mission is an experiment to see how civilization could alter the path of a menacing asteroid, should one be on a collision course with our planet. (Fortunately, no known asteroid over 460 feet across will threaten Earth in the next century or so.)
It's a $330 million critical mission. And it may one day pay off, big time.
"We are right now defenseless against any asteroid aiming for Earth."
"We are right now defenseless against any asteroid aiming for Earth," Markus Wilde, an associate professor of aerospace, physics, and space sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology, told Mashable.
As of the morning of Sept. 26, the mission was on track for impact.
How to watch the DART impact
The impact between the 1,300-pound DART spacecraft and Dimorphos — a 525-foot-wide asteroid that actually orbits a much larger sibling, the half-mile-wide Didymos — will occur some 6.8 million miles from Earth. But the spacecraft has a camera (dubbed "DRACO") that will stream one image per second back to Earth in real time. Until the impact, of course.Where to watch: NASA will livestream the impact on NASA TV. You can watch on NASA's website. You can watch on NASA TV's YouTube channel. Or you can tune into the embedded NASA livestream just below.
When to watch: Live coverage begins Sept. 26, 2022, at 6 p.m. ET. The spacecraft will impact Dimorphos at 7:14 p.m. ET.
Alternatively: If you'd like to just watch the "quiet" real-time feed from the DART camera, without the NASA presentation or explanation, you can tune into the NASA Live YouTube channel beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.
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