Nasa to collide with asteroid in unprecedented planetary test

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Nasa to collide with asteroid in unprecedented planetary test

A multimillion-dollar spacecraft will collide head-on with an asteroid the size of a football stadium in an unprecedented full-scale planetary defense test by the US space agency Nasa on Monday night.

The 570 kg 1257 lb spacecraft named Dart for Double Asteroid Redirection Test was due to crash into the asteroid Dimorphos at high speed and self-destruct about 7 pm ET.

The collision between the asteroid and spaceship, which is about the size of a vending machine with two rectangular solar arrays, is expected to unfold about 6.8 m miles 11 m from Earth.

The test aims to determine if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course and avert a doomsday scenario for Earth. A similar strategy with nuclear missiles rather than an unmanned spacecraft failed during a key point in the plot of Morgan Freeman's 1998 planetary disaster film Deep Impact.

Glen Nagle, Nasa spokesman, said that Dart's planned self-destruction poses no threats to humanity.

Nagle said Monday was the first of a series of Earth protection missions. We want to have a better chance than the dinosaurs had 65 m years ago. Nagle said that the prehistoric reptiles that once ruled Earth went instinct when an asteroid struck the planet.

Nagle said all they could do is look up and go, Oh asteroid. While no known asteroid larger than 459 ft 140 meters in size has a chance of hitting Earth for the next century, it is estimated that only 40% of those asteroids have been identified so far.

Cameras and telescopes will be watching the crash but it will take days or weeks to figure out if it actually altered the orbit of the asteroid.

The $325 m planetary defense test culminating Monday began with Dart s launch last fall.