Nasa’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or Dart mission, seeks to intentionally collide with an asteroid and measure its deflection

1. Dimorphos is 163 metres wide and orbits Didymos

 

2. Didymos is 780 metres across and comes within 6.8m miles of Earth’s orbit every 770 days

Original orbit

2

New orbit

1

5

3

4

3. Dart will autonomously direct itself to the Didymos system and identify Dimorphos as its target

 

4. LICIACube will separate from Dart 10 days before the scheduled impact and relay images to Earth

 

5. The impact is expected to reduce Dimorphos's orbit and nudge it closer to Didymos

Original orbit

New orbit

2

1

Didymos is 780 metres across and comes within 6.8m miles of Earth’s orbit every 770 days

Dimorphos

is 163 metres wide and orbits Didymos

5

The impact is expected to reduce Dimorphos's orbit and nudge it closer to Didymos

4

3

LICIACube will separate from Dart 10 days before the scheduled impact and relay images to Earth

Dart will autonomously direct itself to the Didymos system and identify Dimorphos as its target