NASA prepares for DART mission launch as asteroid approaches Earth. Here's all you need to know

A 170-metre (560 feet) wideasteroid named Dimorphos is about to hit the Earth on September 26 at 23.14 GMT (7.14 pm. EDT), NASA scientists have warned.

But, no worries, as the US space agency is planning to alter its course away from the Earth with its $330 million Dart robot spacecraft.

The spacecraft, which weighs around half-tonne, will be travelling at more than four miles (6.4 km) per second to collide with Dimorphos, which will be about 6.8 million miles (10.9 million km) from Earth at the time of impact.

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DART, which has been designed to operate fully autonomously, will be unmanned for the mission.

Though the scientists have deemed the asteroid to be of “no threat”, the main aim of launching this mission is to demonstrate its capability in preventing any potential asteroid Armageddon.

They say that observations of the Dart spacecraft’s impact on Dimorphos’s orbit will provide crucial data about how well spacecraft can protect Earth from asteroid attack.

Lindley Johnson, the director of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, said the DART mission does not reflect a change in the policy of the space agency’s thinking about hazardous objects, rather a continuation of the work done so far.

"Our charter from the beginning has been not only to find asteroids, but to work on the technology and techniques that can be used to deflect an asteroid from an impact trajectory, should we ever find one," he told Space.com.

"DART is just a first test in what we see as an ongoing programme.”

The Italian Space Agency satellite called the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids will record the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology.

Following this,the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2024 will send its Hera spacecraft on a two-year journey to examine the aftermath of the collision.

"By the time Hera reaches Didymos, in 2026, Dimorphos will have achieved historic significance: the first object in the Solar System to have its orbit shifted by human effort in a measurable way,” the ESA said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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