You Can Watch NASA Crash A Satellite Into An Asteroid Live On Monday

Large Asteroid 2014 JO25 Makes Near-Earth Pass NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 19: Las Vegas Astronomical Society vice president of special events Keith Caceres uses computer software connected to his telescope to locate asteroid 2014 JO25 outside the Planetarium at the College of Southern Nevada on April 19, 2017 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The near mile-long asteroid is traveling at 75,000 mph as it passes the Earth's orbit at almost 1.1 million miles from Earth, less than five times the distance from the Earth to the moon. Astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona discovered the asteroid in May 2014, as part of NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program. It is a contact binary asteroid (two connected rock lobes that were originally separate) giving it a peanut-like shape and is the closest any asteroid this large has approached Earth since September 2004. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
By Ethan

If you’ve seen Armageddon then you know that scientists don’t really have a great plan in case an asteroid is headed for earth. Of course that was just a movie, but the possibility is real, and there should at least be a basic plan in place. And NASA has been working to have a plan ready just in case. One of the plans they’re trying is to actually crash a satellite into an asteroid to see how much, if at all, it can be deflected and knocked off course. And that’s happening this coming Monday, September 26th, 2022!

Want to know what’s even cooler? They have cameras on the satellite and will be beaming back live video from the impact, and streaming it on the web. Yes, we can watch it happen! Its called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART. The impact is scheduled for 7:14 pm EST, and since NASA has sent the satellite approximately 6.8 MILLION miles to make the impact, you can be pretty sure they’re timing is within a few seconds, max.

Of course, unlike Armageddon the movie, this is an un-crewed mission so Bruce Willis will be safe here on Earth.

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