Most mission scientists don't like the idea of their craft being destroyed. Anything less than total destruction will be seen as a failure.
The asteroid is about 11m above the Indian Ocean and will be hit by the spaceship at midnight on Monday. The probe will be destroyed in the name of planetary defense.
Dimorphos doesn't pose a threat to humans. The first mission to assess whether asteroids can be diverted should one ever be found on a collision course with Earth is called the Dart. Humans could be spared the same fate as the dinosaurs if a well- placed nudging was put in place.
Prof Alan Fitzsimmons is an astronomer and member of the Nasa Dart investigation team. We want to move the asteroid with as much energy as possible.
With telescopes constantly scanning the skies, scientists hope to have some notice if an asteroid presents a serious threat. If we are able to see far enough in advance and know that an asteroid is a problem, pushing it out of the way will be safer than blowing it up.
The launch of the Dart mission took place at the space force base. The controllers will let the probe go into oblivion on Monday. At about 12.14am on Tuesday, UK time, the collision will be recorded by Dart's camera and two more onboard a small Italian probe called LiciaCube, which Dart released last week to watch from a safe distance.
It pays to be careful when playing with heavenly bodies. The Dart mission was planned so that it wouldn't cause Dimorphos to collide with Earth. Didymos is a larger asteroid that is 160 metres wide. The impact will raise a cloud of debris and slow Dimorphos down, but nothing more than that.
Prof Snodgrass is an astronomer and member of the Dart mission science team at Edinburgh University. We are not changing its position around the sun. It can't get to Earth.
The asteroids will be observed before and after the collides. The new telescope at the Turkana Basin Institute is designed to capture the moment of impact and the dust cloud that ensues. The amount of debris depends on the energy of the impact, the type of rock Dimorphos is made from, and whether the material is loose or tightly bound. Snodgrass said that the primary mission is a test of planetary defence.
Scientists will figure out how much Dimorphos has been slowed down by the crash. When Dimorphos crosses in front of Didymos, they will monitor the asteroid's brightness to make sure it doesn't get too bright. It takes about 12 hours for dimorphos to travel to Didymos, and it is expected to take a few minutes longer once Dart strikes.
There are 30,000 asteroids and comets that pass by Earth. There are no big asteroids like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs that are going to hit Earth in the next hundred years. Smaller ones can cause a lot of damage if they are not spotted. The meteorite that exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia was less than 20 metres wide and caused a shock wave that injured 1,600 people.
Is it really necessary to crash a spaceship into an asteroid to see what happens? Fitzsimmons doesn't think so. He said that we don't know how asteroids are put together and how much Dimorphos will move when it's hit. You don't want to wait until someone comes towards you to find out if this approach works.
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