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Science
Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University

In a world first, NASA's DART mission is about to smash into an asteroid. What will we learn?

Illustration of DART before impact. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

On September 26 at 11.15pm UTC, NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) will be the first to deliberately and measurably change the motion of a significant body in our Solar System. In other words, it will smash into an asteroid.

The mission will provide the first test of a technique that could be used in the future – to redirect any asteroids we detect on a collision course with Earth.

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