Double Asteroid Redirection Test

The threat from near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 may have subsided, but discoveries of other hazardous space rocks are set to soar as new observatories come online

Looking back home.

Experiment shows that a nuclear explosion could save the planet from a deadly asteroid impact

When NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided with an asteroid moon called Dimorphos in 2022, the moon was significantly deformed—creating a large crater and reshaping it so dramatically that the moon derailed from its original evolutionary progression—according to a new study. The study's researchers believe that Dimorphos may start to "tumble" chaotically in its attempts to move back…

In studying data collected from NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which in 2022 sent a spacecraft to intentionally collide with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, the mission's science team has discovered new information on the origins of the target binary asteroid system and why the DART spacecraft was so effective in shifting Dimorphos' orbit.  In five recently […]

NASA astronaut Andre Douglas has been named the backup astronaut for three astronauts on NASA's round-the-moon mission. Douglas was certified for liftoff...

NASA has selected 12 participating scientists to join ESA's (European Space Agency) Hera mission, which is scheduled to launch in October 2024. Hera will study the binary asteroid system Didymos, including the moonlet Dimorphos, which was impacted by NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft on Sept. 26, 2022. The objectives of DART and Hera […]

For the benefit of all, NASA released a summary Thursday of the fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise. NASA's Planetary Defense

NASA will host a virtual media briefing at 3:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, June 20, to discuss a new summary of a recent tabletop exercise to simulate national and

An audacious defense test unleashed debris that could reshape another world's surface.

March 14 marks the annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi, aka the Greek letter π. Its infinite number of digits is usually rounded to 3.14, hence the date of Pi Day. For some people, the occasion marks an annual excuse to eat pizza or pie (or both), but to truly honor this wondrously useful number, a serving of mathematics is in order, too. NASA is here to help.

From robotic lunar landers perusing the surface to an astronaut flyby, 2024 could be the year NASA makes its big return to the moon.

Scientists have discovered that many asteroids have the consistency of piles of rubble. Knowing this, how could we defend Earth against one of these...

NASA's Lucy spacecraft just flew by its first asteroid — and discovered that the space rock has a companion.

NASA's Lucy mission is starting its science studies way ahead of schedule

By Rick Smith

Scientists see Bennu as a threat to Earth.

The five asteroids range from plane to bus-size, and one is expected to come to within half a million miles of Earth.

The sensor-packed detective spacecraft will scan the battered asteroid Dimorphos up close.

Thanks to DART, we minutely deflected the asteroid from its path in the name of planetary defense. But we also released a boulder swarm. The post How DART deflected an asteroid (but released a boulder swarm) first appeared on EarthSky.