Name: Watch the DART Spacecraft Smash into an Asteroid
Uploaded: undefined
Duration: undefined

NOVA

Carlisle Companies

Viking

NOVA Science Trust Logo

Could we deflect an asteroid barreling toward Earth? NASA’s DART mission—the first test of its kind—showed that we may be able to knock an asteroid off its path, if we ever need to.

Could we deflect an asteroid barreling toward Earth? DART offers a first test.

University of Michigan

Could we deflect an asteroid barreling toward Earth? NASA’s DART mission--the first test of its kind--showed that we may be able to knock an asteroid off its path, if we ever need to.

Watch the DART Spacecraft Smash into an Asteroid

Could we deflect an asteroid barreling toward Earth? DART offers a first test.

Space & Flight

Watch the DART Spacecraft Smash into an AsteroidPublished September 27, 2022NARRATOR: NASA’S DART spacecraft slammed into an asteroid in a bid to change the rock’s trajectory. This is NASA’s first test of a technology designed to deflect asteroids that might one day threaten to collide with Earth.JULIE BELLROSE: DART Navigation lead: “ From a navigation perspective it really went very well. So there’s relief but in the end I shed a tear, it’s just the emotion that comes up.”NARRATOR: For the test, scientists chose Dimorphos, a 525-foot asteroid “moonlet” that circles a larger asteroid called Didymos. Neither poses any threat to Earth. DART may be proof that if Earth were to be threatened by an asteroid, humans could do something about it.

United States

Northern Mariana Islands

Puerto Rico

American Samoa

Guam

U.S. Virgin Islands

U.S. Minor Outlying Islands

US & Territories

Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. What are the implications of these dramatic developments in the Arctic? Scientists and local communities alike are struggling to grasp the scale of the methane threat and what it means for our climate future. (Premiered February 2, 2022)

In the Arctic, enormous releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, threaten the climate.

Arctic Sinkholes

The top half of Jupiter in blue and green against a night sky

A composite image of Jupiter using images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt.

Explore the cosmos, delve into ancient history, and follow an extreme rescue with NOVA’s most-watched documentaries released in 2022.

NOVA’s most popular science documentaries of 2022

Four bright orange loops brand off of a dark blue blob

A transmission electron micrograph of HIV-1 virus particles (orange) replicating from the plasma membrane of an infected H9 T cell. Credit: NIAID, Flickr

Scientists have cured a handful of people of HIV by piggybacking on treatments they received for blood cancer. But does that bring a widespread cure any closer?

Watch the DART Spacecraft Smash into an Asteroid

Support Provided By

Explore More

Can Humans Deflect an Asteroid?

DART spacecraft slams into asteroid

NASA launches mission to redirect an asteroid—by striking it with a spacecraft

Transcript

Credits

Participants

Support Provided By

Explore More

Can Humans Deflect an Asteroid?

DART spacecraft slams into asteroid

NASA launches mission to redirect an asteroid—by striking it with a spacecraft