МИССИЯ ДАРТ

NASA's DART mission intentionally impacted the asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, using a kinetic impactor to change its orbit around its binary companion Didymos. This was the first planetary defense test of this method of asteroid deflection. The DART mission explored the technological readiness of the kinetic impactor technique, which involves colliding a spacecraft with an asteroid to alter its orbit and prevent it from hitting Earth. The impact shortened Dimorphos' orbital period by about half an hour, and images taken by DART showed that it was a collection of rocks ranging in size from centimeters to tens of meters. The Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) accompanied DART and studied the Didymos system with a color camera and highresolution monochrome camera. Filaments of rocky debris were seen stretching away from Dimorphos after the impact, and the ejecta was followed by ground-based telescopes as it evolved into a tail. In 2024, the European Space Agency will launch the Hera mission to return to Didymos and Dimorphos for an extended stay and provide a comprehensive look at the system four years after DART's impact. Overall, the success of DART and plans for advancing planetary defense should reassure the public that preparations are being made to mitigate the impact of asteroids on Earth.