NASA's DART spacecraft nudges small asteroid to test deflection method

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission is underway! On September 26th, 2022 a kinetic impactor will strike Dimorphos, a small asteroid orbiting a larger asteroid, Didymos. The goal is to change the orbital path of Dimorphos. Cathy Plesko, a Planetary Defense Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, explains the method they are testing to deflect the asteroid. If successful, Dimorphos' orbit around Didymos should change by about 10 minutes.