The goal is to verify if, how and to what extent this operation will be able to deviate the course of this asteroid, so as to have a weapon to defend us from future impacts that - sooner or later - could actually looming over our planet. The impact will be observed by the small cubesat made in Italy Liciacube, and its effects will then be precisely monitored by the probe of the European space agency Hera, scheduled for 2024.
But that's not all: also the James space telescopes Webb and Hubble and the Nasa Lucy mission, created to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, will monitor the event.
NASA's Dart probe will attempt to deflect an asteroid The deflection maneuver of the asteroid Dimorphos is scheduled for September 27th: the probe will crash on its surface to see if we are able to modify its trajectory L 'target is a binary system of asteroids consisting of a larger stone - Didymos, 780 meters in diameter - and a smaller one - Dimorphos, only 160 meters and roughly the size of the Colosseum. The mission was then called Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or in acronym Dart
The first planetary defense test depends on 24 hours of blind autonomous navigation In the night between 26 and 27 September for the first time a spaceship, Dart, will be used as a ram to deflect the trajectory of an asteroid
Where to follow the live
Twitter content This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.The impact of the Dart probe with the asteroid Dimorphos can be followed on the official Nasa website and on the official channels of the space agency: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.