![]() ![]() Together, the two asteroids make one full orbit around the sun every two years.ĭimorphos poses no threat to Earth, and the mission is essentially target practice. Astronomers call those two asteroids a binary system, where one is a mini-moon to the other. Should a different asteroid ever wind up on a collision course with Earth, the world’s space agencies would have confidence that an asteroid missile like DART would shoo the space rock away.Īfter launching to space, the spacecraft will make nearly one full orbit around the sun before it crosses paths with Dimorphos, a football-field-sized asteroid that closely orbits a bigger asteroid, called Didymos, every 11 hours and 55 minutes. If all goes as planned with DART, NASA will have a confirmed weapon in its planetary defense arsenal.
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