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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Science
Richard Luscombe

Why Nasa is crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid – and how to watch it

In this file photo taken on September 12, 2022 a man sits at his workstation within the Mission Operations Center during the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Technology Media Workshop Telecon Briefing and tour at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland ahead of the September 26th project test mission.
The agency has targeted the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

An unprecedented and long-awaited deep-space venture will take place almost 7m miles from Earth on Monday night when a Nasa spacecraft will be deliberately crashed into an asteroid in an attempt to show humanity can avert an Armageddon-style impact to Earth.

Here’s what’s happening, and why:

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