NASA's DART mission has had ties to the University of Arizona from the beginning, from the discovery of the asteroid to research that will take place following the mission's conclusion.
TUCSON, Ariz. — This afternoon, NASA targeted and crashed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft into an asteroid. It's a mission that's had ties to the University of Arizona from the beginning, from the discovery of the asteroid to research that will take place following the mission's conclusion.
The half-mile wide asteroid Dimorphos that was targeted posed no threat to Earth, but NASA scientists did determine that it was an ideal target to test new technology that could be used in the event of future asteroid threats. Didymos, Dimorphos' twin, was spotted by a 36-inch telescope on Kitt Peak by Joseph Montani, a member of the university's Spacewatch group in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. The name means"twin" in Greek, a name that Montani suggested over the asteroid's original name,"1996 GT."Brucker is also on the science investigation team for DART.
NASA livestreamed the impact. As the DART spacecraft made its approach, the binary asteroids appeared initially as points of light, growing in detail up until the moment of impact. The craft made a pass by Didymos and the detailed terrain of Dimporphos continued to fill the screen until the signal cut to black.
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