NASA's DART spacecraft to crash into asteroid: How to watch?
What's the story
Today is the day that NASA will finally find out whether it can protect Earth from unruly space rocks. As the US-based space agency crashes a spacecraft into an asteroid as part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, the world will hold its breath in anticipation. We can watch the event live and witness history being made as well. Here's how.
Context
Why does this story matter?
We hear about asteroids flying past the Earth on a constant basis. Some of them pose a threat to us while others do not. The DART mission is the first of its kind that will test the "kinetic impact" method to see whether it could potentially be used to redirect asteroids. The probe will crash into Dimorphos, which orbits the larger Didymos asteroid.
Timings
NASA will start streaming event at 6:00 pm EDT
NASA will crash a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos on Monday (September 26) at 7:14 pm EDT (4:44 am IST, Tuesday, September 27). You can watch the live streaming of the event on NASA TV, the NASA app, its YouTube channel, and social media accounts. The streaming will begin at 6:00 pm EDT (3:30 am IST, Tuesday) and continue until the moment of impact.
Information
Check out these links to watch the event live
To watch the DART mission on NASA's website, head to https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive. You can watch the event live on YouTube at https://youtu.be/21X5lGlDOfg. The live streaming will be also available on NASA's official Twitter and Facebook handles.
Alternative
You can watch livestreaming through telescopes too
Once the probe crashes into the asteroid, the live streaming will stop. However, you can continue watching the event even after the crash, courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project. It will use ground-based telescopes to stream the event. To watch the historical event through the eyes of telescopes online, head to the Project's website. Streaming will begin at 6:30 pm EDT (4:00 am IST).