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In September 2022, a NASA spacecraft smashed into a tiny asteroid to nudge it off its orbital course. The mission was a success in testing an asteroid deflection method that may come in handy one day, but rather than leaving behind an impact crater, the orbital collision changed the shape of the target asteroid altogether, revealing its fungible composition. Dave Bautista Opens Up About His Relationship With Denis VilleneuveA team of researchers simulated the impact of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, to…

China has selected a small, near-Earth asteroid as the target for an upcoming mission that will help it prepare against future threats of incoming space rocks.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewThe mission is targeting asteroid 2019 VL5, a small object that’s about 108 feet (33 meters) in diameter and orbits the Sun every 365 days, bringing it in close proximity to Earth. Chen Qi from China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory revealed the planetary defense mission’s target during…

Star Wars’ next chapter of The High Republic’s flashback phase II is about to be upon us, as the situation between the ancient Jedi Order and the Path of the Open Hand—a mysterious group that believes the Force is not for anyone to use, especially Jedi—gets worse. So it’s probably a sign of things to come that the next major book in the series is called Cataclysm, right?Penned by Dr. Lydia Kang, Star Wars: The High Republic - Cataclysm follows up with the ongoing crisis in the Outer Rim, in phase II of the transmedia Star…

The OrbAstro ORB-50 satellite platform will host a variety of instruments needed to evaluate the target asteroid from a distance. Illustration: Intuitive MachinesAstroForge has announced an ambitious commercial mission to observe a distant asteroid—an important step for the California startup as it strives to become the world’s first deep space mining company.AstroForge seeks to capitalize on the rapidly evolving state of the spaceflight industry and become the first firm to mine for metals in deep space. The California…

JuRa has a footprint of about 4 inches (10 centimeters) and is the first radar to probe the interior of an asteroid, per ESA.Image: JuRA Team/UGAIn the aftermath of the astounding plan to move a harmless asteroid with NASA’s DART mission, further science is needed to determine exactly what kind of impact humanity had on the distant Dimorphos. ESA’s Hera mission aims to do just that with its launch in two years, and it will be bringing along a scrappy sidekick in the form of a tiny radar.The European Space Agency is…

LICIACube image showing the plumes of debris streaming from Dimorphos shortly after the DART impact on September 26. “Each rectangle represents a different level of contrast in order to better see fine structure in the plumes,” according to the European Space Agency.Image: ASI/NASA/APLEarlier this week, NASA announced that its DART spacecraft successfully moved an asteroid by a few dozen feet. This raises a valid question: How the heck did scientists figure this out,given that Dimorphos is nearly 7 million miles away?…

DART’s view of Dimorphos shortly before impact. Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APLThe results are in from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which attempted to deflect an asteroid: NASA has forever reshaped the Didymos-Dimorphos system. The successful test points to a possible planetary defense strategy for protecting Earth against hazardous near-Earth objects.Who Wants DC’s Canceled Batgirl Movie? | New York Comic Con 2022NASA’s 1,340-pound spacecraft smashed into the moonlet on September 26 following a 10…

The final full-frame image captured by DART prior to its collision with the Dimorphos asteroid. Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APLNASA’s DART spacecraft was 6.8 million miles from Earth when it slammed into a football stadium-sized asteroid on Monday. Despite this immense distance, images from the impact and its aftermath are coming in, and they’re proving to be better—and far more bizarre—than we expected.Going into Monday’s test, it wasn’t clear how much of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test we’d get to see. At the very…

ATLAS project timelapse showing the impact at the Didymos-Dimorphos system. At this distance, the two asteroid appear as one. Gif: ATLAS Project/GizmodoNASA’s DART mission to ram a kinetic impactor into a harmless asteroid went perfectly yesterday, resulting in the desired destruction of the spacecraft. Andas views from Earth showed, the effects of the impact weren’t subtle. The 1,340-pound spacecraft plowed into Dimorphos, a small moon around asteroid Didymos, at 7:14 p.m. ET on Monday, following a 10-month journey to…

DART approaching Dimorphos, shown at 8x normal speed. Gif: NASA/GizmodoNASA’s DART spacecraft has crashed into Dimorphos, with the loss of signal occurring today at exactly 7:14 p.m. ET as expected. Scientists will now pore over the data to see if the kinetic impactor altered the asteroid’s orbital trajectory. NASA’s first demonstration of a possible planetary defense strategy appears to have gone exceptionally well, with the DART spacecraft successfully impacting a non-threatening asteroid following a 10-month journey to…