Watch NASA Blast the Bejesus Out of an Asteroid on Monday

LAUREL, Md. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, will impact its target asteroid—which poses no threat to Earth—at 7:14 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 26.

Among other activities, NASA will host a televised briefing beginning at 6 p.m. on Sept. 26 from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. APL is the builder and manager of the DART spacecraft for NASA.

This test will show a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be measured using ground-based telescopes. DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one ever be discovered.

The following is a list of activities for DART’s impact with the asteroid Dimorphos (all times Eastern):

Monday, Sept. 26 (DART Impact Day)

• 6 p.m. – Live coverage of DART’s impact with the asteroid Dimorphos will air on NASA TV and the agency’s website. The public also can watch live on agency social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• ​7:14 p.m. –DART’s kinetic impact with asteroid Dimorphos.
• ​​8 p.m. – Media briefing at Johns Hopkins APL to hear from mission experts immediately following DART’s successful impact with asteroid Dimorphos.

NASA Social

Stay connected with the DART mission and share your experience watching DART’s impact with an asteroid on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with #DARTMission and #PlanetaryDefender. Follow and tag these accounts:

• Twitter: @NASA, @NASASolarSystem, @AsteroidWatch, @JHUAPL
• Facebook: NASA, NASA Solar System Exploration, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
• Instagram: @NASA, @NASASolarSystem, @JohnsHopkinsAPL

Become a Planetary Defender

Support the DART mission by becoming a “Planetary Defender!” Participants who take a short quiz will earn a certificate and badge they can download, print, and share on social media.

For more information about the DART mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/dartmission