![]() Kleomenis Tsiganis, a planetary scientist at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a member of the DART team, suggested the name. Last week, the International Astronomical Union officially named the moon Dimorphos. ![]() At the time, the moon was known as Didymos b. In Greek, Didymos means “twin,” which was used to describe how the larger asteroid, which is nearly half a mile across, is orbited by a smaller moon that is 525 feet in diameter. Two decades ago, a binary system involving a near-Earth asteroid was found to have a moon orbiting it, dubbed Didymos. Near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets whose orbits place them within 30 million miles of Earth. This will be the agency’s first full-scale demonstration of this type of technology on behalf of planetary defense.ĭimorphos received its name last week, just in time for a reflection on the importance of understanding the threat of near-Earth asteroids. In two years, NASA will demonstrate its asteroid deflection technology on the newly named Dimorphos, a moon orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Didymos. PT on November 23 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.Īfter launching in November, NASA will test its asteroid deflection technology in September 2022 to see how it impacts the motion of a near-Earth asteroid in space. The DART mission, or NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, will lift off at 10:20 p.m. ![]() A spacecraft that will deliberately crash into an asteroid is preparing to launch. ![]()
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