NASA's first spacecraft to try to deflect an asteroid takes off

• Science DART, the first mission that will try to divert an asteroid from its orbit, about to take off

The

has released early this morning a mission to deliberately crashing a spaceship against an asteroid,

need a day to

prevent a giant space rock that ends with life on Earth.

Broadcast live on

television

, a

rocket

carrying the experimental probe took off at 10:21 p.m. (0621 GMT) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

"All systems, as well as weather, looking good for the

launch

tonight," Elon Musk's company tweeted.

Its target is

, a "moon" about 160 meters (two statues of liberty) wide, surrounding a much larger asteroid called

(780 meters in diameter).

Together, they form a system that orbits the Sun.

The impact should occur in the autumn of 2022, when the pair of rocks meet

, the closest point they can get to.

"What we are trying to learn is how to deflect a threat,

" NASA chief scientist Thomas Zuburchen said in a press conference call about the $ 330 million project and the first of its kind.

To be clear:

.

But they belong to a class of bodies known as

(NEOs).

These are asteroids and comets that come within 50 million kilometers of our planet.

NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office is most interested in bodies larger than 140 meters, since they have the potential to devastate cities or entire regions with energy several times that of

.

There are

known

a size of 140 meters or more, but none have a significant chance of impacting in the next 100 years.

But - an important caveat - it is estimated that only 40% of these asteroids have been found to date.

Impact at 24,000 km / h

Planetary scientists can create miniature impacts in laboratories and use the results to create sophisticated models of how to deflect an asteroid.

But

, so they want to run a real-world test.

The DART probe, which is a box with the volume of a large fridge and solar panels the size of a limousine on each side, will crash into

at just over 15,000 miles per hour, causing a small change in the movement of the asteroid.

Scientists say these rocks are an "ideal natural laboratory" for the test, because Earth-based telescopes can easily measure the variation in brightness of the

and calculate the time it takes for

to orbit its older brother.

Its orbit never crosses our planet, providing a safe way to measure the effect of the impact, which is scheduled to occur between September 26 and October 1, 2022.

Andy Rivkin

, head of the DART research team, said the current orbital period is 11 hours 55 minutes.

The team expects the hit to reduce Dimorphos' orbit by about 10 minutes.

There is some uncertainty about the amount of energy that will be transferred on impact, as the internal composition and porosity of the small moon is unknown.

The more debris generated, the more push

will receive

.

"Every time we go to an asteroid, we come across things we didn't expect," Rivkin said.

The DART spacecraft also contains sophisticated imaging and navigation instruments, including the Italian Space Agency's CubeSat, which will observe the crash and its after-effects.

trajectory

could also be slightly affected, but it would not significantly alter its course or endanger Earth, according to scientists.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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