Dart, the NASA probe that will crash with an asteroid to deflect it

The impact of NASA's Dart mission with the asteroid Dimorphos is set for 27 September at 1.14 Italian time.

The probe will crash into the asteroid at about 24 thousand kilometers per hour, attempting to divert its trajectory and thus testing the effectiveness of this system in case of danger to the Earth .

The Italian microsatellite LiciaCube of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), which has already detached itself from the probe to film the impact at a safe distance, will see the show, but also the James Webb space telescopes (of NASA, European Space Agency Esa and Agenzia space) and Hubble (by NASA and ESA).

The Nasa Lucy mission , launched in 2021 and directed towards four asteroids orbiting the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter, will also see the whole scene. While in about four years Dimorphos will also be joined by the Hera mission of ESA, whose launch is scheduled for October 2024 and which will study the effects of the collision in detail.

Unfortunately, the asteroid is very close and moves much faster than the very distant galaxies for which James Webb was designed, so it is not certain that the images will be of great quality. Hubble, on the other hand, will be on the wrong side of the Earth at the moment of impact and its observations can only begin 15 minutes later.

Meanwhile, researchers from the American University John Hopkins (which manages the Dart mission) have tested the Draco camera on board the probe, which allows the vehicle to navigate and which will also immortalize the asteroid in the hours preceding the impact. The researchers trained the camera to recognize Dimorphos as he peaks out from behind his "companion" asteroid Didymos, making him photograph Jupiter's satellite Europa.

(Unioneonline / D)