What is the DART Mission?

NASA's DART mission was a spacecraft designed to test a method of deflecting an asteroid for planetary defense.

What is the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission?

About DART Mission

  • NASA’s DART mission was a spacecraft designed to test a method of deflecting an asteroid for planetary defense, using the “kinetic impactor” technique (in simplest terms means smashing a thing into another thing).
  • DART was the first-ever space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impactor.
  • The target of the spacecraft was a 160-meter-wide asteroid known as Dimorphos, which is a moonlet in orbit around the larger asteroid, Didymos.
  • It was launched in November 2021.
  • DART spacecraft successfully collided with Dimorphos on 26 September 2022, altering the asteroid’s orbit by 33 minutes.
  • It is the first time humanity intentionally changed the motion of a celestial object in space.

What are Boulders?

  • It is a geological term for a rock fragment that is larger than 25.6 centimeters (10.1 inches) in diameter.
  • Boulders can be made up of various types of rocks, including igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
  • The composition of a boulder depends on the geology of the area in which it formed.

Source: IT

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DART Mission FAQs

Q1. What is an Asteroid?+

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