WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.171 --> 00:00:04.891 Welcome, everybody for joining us today for the Double Asteroid 00:00:04.891 --> 00:00:08.754 Redirection Test or DART Mission: Preparing for Impact. 00:00:09.097 --> 00:00:13.560 We are broadcasting from the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 00:00:13.989 --> 00:00:19.482 And we really want to welcome all the participants that we have with us today. 00:00:19.739 --> 00:00:25.403 We've got students in grades 4 through 12, plus formal and informal educators 00:00:25.403 --> 00:00:29.180 from 24 different states across our nation. 00:00:29.437 --> 00:00:33.385 So we are so glad to have all of you with us here today. 00:00:34.072 --> 00:00:36.560 We're also really glad 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.079 that we have our featured speaker and our event facilitators. 00:00:40.337 --> 00:00:46.001 But our featured speaker, Paul, is one very busy individual, 00:00:46.001 --> 00:00:50.035 especially now as we're getting close to the DART impact 00:00:50.292 --> 00:00:53.468 which he will talk about with us here in a few minutes. 00:00:53.897 --> 00:00:58.360 So we're certainly very thankful for all of you to be here, 00:00:58.617 --> 00:01:01.535 and we look forward to having Paul 00:01:01.621 --> 00:01:05.569 start sharing a little bit about the DART mission. 00:01:05.569 --> 00:01:09.774 And also, Paul, if you'll start with a little bit about yourself as well. 00:01:10.461 --> 00:01:12.950 OK, great. Well, hello, everybody. 00:01:12.950 --> 00:01:15.696 I'm really excited to be here with you and share 00:01:16.211 --> 00:01:18.872 about the DART mission, and it's an exciting mission. 00:01:19.901 --> 00:01:21.446 A little bit about me. 00:01:21.446 --> 00:01:22.991 I'm actually from Canada. 00:01:22.991 --> 00:01:24.450 I'm Canadian. 00:01:24.793 --> 00:01:27.626 Moved down to NASA Johnson Space Center to start work 00:01:27.626 --> 00:01:31.144 here back in 2004 and have been here ever since. 00:01:32.174 --> 00:01:36.208 My title is Chief Scientist for Small Body Exploration. 00:01:36.208 --> 00:01:39.469 What that means is basically I study asteroids 00:01:39.469 --> 00:01:42.559 and comets, asteroids, big rocks in space. 00:01:42.559 --> 00:01:45.563 They're my, my specialty and it's my passion. 00:01:45.820 --> 00:01:47.880 And what I really like to learn about. 00:01:47.880 --> 00:01:52.600 So think of me as sort of a planetary geologist, but like a geologist on Earth, 00:01:52.600 --> 00:01:56.634 I don't use a magnifying glass or a rock hammer to look at my rocks. 00:01:56.977 --> 00:02:01.269 I have to use big telescopes and spacecraft to look at my rocks 00:02:01.269 --> 00:02:04.187 because they're very, very far away and they move very fast. 00:02:04.530 --> 00:02:06.590 So I'm going to stop sharing my video. 00:02:06.590 --> 00:02:08.735 I'm going to share the content here. 00:02:09.164 --> 00:02:11.911 And we'll get into the actual presentation. Yes. 00:02:12.168 --> 00:02:13.284 So this takes 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:15.344 a big, 00:02:15.344 --> 00:02:18.433 big team to put a mission together like this. 00:02:18.433 --> 00:02:21.094 So this is a DART investigation team. 00:02:21.094 --> 00:02:24.613 These are all the institutions and countries. 00:02:24.956 --> 00:02:29.161 There's over 230 people who work on the DART team. 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:33.367 And this is all because planetary defense is an international 00:02:34.397 --> 00:02:35.598 effort, right? 00:02:35.598 --> 00:02:39.374 We need international cooperation for an international issue. 00:02:39.374 --> 00:02:42.378 So we have over 230 members 00:02:42.807 --> 00:02:46.498 from over a hundred institutions and 27 countries. 00:02:46.498 --> 00:02:47.528 So I just wanted to make sure 00:02:47.528 --> 00:02:50.360 that people know that this is not just me doing this mission... 00:02:50.789 --> 00:02:53.535 This is a lot of people all over the world. 00:02:55.423 --> 00:02:58.942 OK, this has no sound, but I wanted to give you an idea 00:02:58.942 --> 00:03:02.718 of what happened and why we care about planetary defense. 00:03:03.577 --> 00:03:06.924 Back in 2013 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, 00:03:08.211 --> 00:03:12.073 a significant meteor came in about 20 meters across 00:03:12.588 --> 00:03:15.334 bit bigger than a school bus size came in at high speed 00:03:16.021 --> 00:03:18.682 and exploded over Russia 00:03:19.197 --> 00:03:22.801 and it released a lot of energy 20 to 30 times 00:03:22.801 --> 00:03:26.492 more energy than the atomic bombs that were dropped in World War two. 00:03:26.749 --> 00:03:31.813 You can see the fireball going across the sky there from video cameras 00:03:32.757 --> 00:03:36.705 lots and lots of damage over the area, lots of windows 00:03:36.705 --> 00:03:41.082 broken and several people, about 1600 people were hurt actually. 00:03:41.082 --> 00:03:41.940 100 people were 00:03:42.970 --> 00:03:45.888 hospitalized, but 1600 people were hurt. 00:03:46.317 --> 00:03:48.119 So this was a big, big day for us. 00:03:48.119 --> 00:03:51.981 This was something that caught us by surprise and certainly got us 00:03:52.325 --> 00:03:54.556 got our attention 00:03:56.187 --> 00:04:02.023 but, this is video... 00:04:05.713 --> 00:04:06.743 That's the... 00:04:06.743 --> 00:04:09.318 what happened was they were looking up at the sky 00:04:10.691 --> 00:04:13.266 and they saw the contrail 00:04:13.266 --> 00:04:15.754 and all of a sudden that blast, that shockwave hit them. 00:04:16.012 --> 00:04:17.299 Right. So they're pretty frightened. 00:04:17.299 --> 00:04:18.844 So here's some more videos. 00:04:18.844 --> 00:04:21.676 Again, no sound on these, but you can see the shockwave hits 00:04:22.792 --> 00:04:26.053 and all the windows blew out or a lot of the windows blew out. 00:04:26.053 --> 00:04:28.628 So these are cameras that are just set up. 00:04:29.915 --> 00:04:32.233 And this was wintertime in Russia. 00:04:32.233 --> 00:04:35.322 So a little bit cold so when they have all the windows blow up, that's a problem. 00:04:35.322 --> 00:04:36.352 Watch what happens here. 00:04:36.352 --> 00:04:39.013 There's this what happens to the ceiling? And these people, 00:04:40.043 --> 00:04:40.643 those glass 00:04:40.643 --> 00:04:43.218 ceilings cave in in this warehouse 00:04:44.248 --> 00:04:45.707 and then watch what happens here. 00:04:45.707 --> 00:04:48.625 They see the flash and they're looking up at the sky at that big contrail 00:04:49.397 --> 00:04:52.830 and all of a sudden the shockwave hits 00:04:53.002 --> 00:04:56.349 and blows people back away from the windows. 00:04:57.551 --> 00:04:59.782 So again, they didn't know what was going on. 00:04:59.782 --> 00:05:01.413 They didn't realize it was an asteroid impact. 00:05:01.413 --> 00:05:03.387 They thought there was something else. 00:05:03.387 --> 00:05:06.047 Watch what happens to this door. 00:05:06.047 --> 00:05:07.849 It it blows out, blows 00:05:07.849 --> 00:05:10.167 in, I should say, from the shockwave hitting. 00:05:10.853 --> 00:05:14.372 So kind of a very, very scary 00:05:14.372 --> 00:05:16.003 again, watch what happens to these people. 00:05:16.003 --> 00:05:18.320 They're starting their morning. They don't know about the asteroid impact. 00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:22.010 They're near the window and they think you know, 00:05:22.354 --> 00:05:24.242 they're not sure what's going on, but something bad's happened. 00:05:24.242 --> 00:05:26.559 And so they they run away. 00:05:26.559 --> 00:05:29.563 So these are all these type of things that happened. 00:05:30.078 --> 00:05:32.138 Again, you can see this in a classroom, 00:05:33.597 --> 00:05:34.541 children getting ready in 00:05:34.541 --> 00:05:38.746 the morning and the windows are blowing and lots of explosions. 00:05:38.746 --> 00:05:44.668 So this is what the where the last piece or the final piece 00:05:44.668 --> 00:05:49.560 to make it to the ground from that asteroid, this big meteor that came in. 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:53.164 And it actually punched a hole in the ice and they actually recovered 00:05:53.765 --> 00:05:56.254 quite a bit of it from the hole. 00:05:56.254 --> 00:05:59.344 They had to go down and dig it out and get it. 00:05:59.344 --> 00:06:03.549 So that was an interesting day February 15th 2013 in Chelyabinsk, Russia. 00:06:03.549 --> 00:06:05.866 We were, we were very busy trying to figure out what happened. 00:06:06.381 --> 00:06:09.900 And like I said, it got people's attention. 00:06:10.672 --> 00:06:14.191 So I wanted to share with you this is a slide 00:06:14.792 --> 00:06:20.714 of basically what we see from satellites looking down on earth. 00:06:20.714 --> 00:06:23.117 They're looking down at Earth for other things. 00:06:23.117 --> 00:06:28.009 But in the process of doing so, they see lots of what we call 00:06:28.009 --> 00:06:32.815 high altitude explosions from asteroids and comets hitting our planet. 00:06:33.587 --> 00:06:35.905 And you can see these 00:06:35.905 --> 00:06:38.994 dots, they hit everywhere, all over the Earth. 00:06:39.423 --> 00:06:39.767 Right? 00:06:39.767 --> 00:06:42.341 You can see here's North America, South America, Africa, 00:06:42.771 --> 00:06:45.689 Europe, Australia, Antarctica. 00:06:45.689 --> 00:06:48.435 And it doesn't matter where you are on the Earth, 00:06:49.036 --> 00:06:53.155 these asteroids can come in and hit in any type of direction, in any location. 00:06:53.842 --> 00:06:56.502 The size of the dots corresponds 00:06:56.502 --> 00:06:58.905 to how big and how much energy 00:06:59.850 --> 00:07:04.312 those asteroids release when they hit the upper atmosphere and explode. 00:07:04.913 --> 00:07:07.316 So fortunately for us, a lot of these represent 00:07:07.316 --> 00:07:11.779 very small asteroids, only maybe one or two meters across. 00:07:11.779 --> 00:07:12.122 Right. 00:07:12.122 --> 00:07:13.839 Maybe these things as big as a 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:16.671 as a basketball or beach ball, maybe a bit bigger than that. 00:07:17.443 --> 00:07:19.675 The Chelyabinsk one though, was this. 00:07:19.675 --> 00:07:21.820 This was Chelyabinsk. And it was a big one. 00:07:21.820 --> 00:07:25.597 And you can see that was a 20 meter object, like I said. 00:07:26.112 --> 00:07:28.257 And it released lots and lots of energy. 00:07:29.030 --> 00:07:31.433 So these things happen all the time. 00:07:31.433 --> 00:07:34.951 This is information that we've gathered since 1988 00:07:35.552 --> 00:07:37.698 up until just September, September 00:07:38.899 --> 00:07:41.388 22. So 00:07:41.989 --> 00:07:44.907 we're constantly getting hit over time. 00:07:46.624 --> 00:07:48.254 OK, all right. 00:07:48.254 --> 00:07:52.030 I have a question and this is for the, for you guys. 00:07:52.202 --> 00:07:53.060 All right. 00:07:53.404 --> 00:07:56.579 So approximately how many asteroids are in our solar system? 00:07:56.751 --> 00:08:00.956 You have three choices: are there hundreds, thousands, or millions? 00:08:01.299 --> 00:08:03.445 Take your best bet and put it in the chat. 00:08:04.046 --> 00:08:07.050 And then maybe also think about what things do you think 00:08:07.307 --> 00:08:10.311 make an asteroid potentially dangerous to earth. 00:08:10.997 --> 00:08:12.971 And Paige, I'll turn it over to you. Great. 00:08:12.971 --> 00:08:19.151 So as you're putting your answers in, and I'm seeing a lot of very similar answers, 00:08:19.151 --> 00:08:22.498 but I won't spoil it for everyone, so put those answers in. 00:08:22.927 --> 00:08:26.446 But then additionally that "what do you think makes 00:08:26.446 --> 00:08:29.364 an asteroid potentially dangerous to Earth?" 00:08:29.965 --> 00:08:34.170 That would be a great, we're really interested 00:08:34.170 --> 00:08:37.860 to see the type of input and thinking you all think out there. 00:08:38.032 --> 00:08:39.834 And again, if you want to start your answer 00:08:39.834 --> 00:08:43.439 with your school or org name, then we can kind of give you a shout out. 00:08:44.040 --> 00:08:48.245 So we'll get back to the "Approximately how many?" Because I do see most 00:08:48.417 --> 00:08:50.991 folks are in alignment with what they're saying. 00:08:51.249 --> 00:08:53.566 But then we have Upper Darby. 00:08:53.566 --> 00:08:57.256 They're saying the speed, size, and location [that's from] Upper Darby 00:08:57.771 --> 00:08:58.801 High School. 00:08:58.801 --> 00:09:03.865 They think that would sort of pertain to why or make an asteroid 00:09:03.865 --> 00:09:08.328 potentially dangerous to earth, Massabesic Middle School says the diameter 00:09:09.100 --> 00:09:13.906 and the impact or size or the impact size would certainly make 00:09:13.906 --> 00:09:17.082 an asteroid dangerous as well as the sound and the sound barrier. 00:09:17.597 --> 00:09:20.429 OLPH says the proximity of asteroids 00:09:20.429 --> 00:09:23.776 and size of asteroids would make it perhaps more dangerous. 00:09:24.463 --> 00:09:29.355 Another group says the speed at which the asteroid hits, as well as its size, 00:09:30.384 --> 00:09:31.071 someone actually 00:09:31.071 --> 00:09:34.761 mentions that there could be a danger of a tsunami or cloud 00:09:34.761 --> 00:09:38.538 and or weather change from an asteroid impact. 00:09:38.881 --> 00:09:40.254 Duxbury Senior Center 00:09:40.254 --> 00:09:44.631 says the speed of travels, the size and perhaps even the composition. 00:09:44.975 --> 00:09:49.180 St Dominique Academy says the velocity and size, 00:09:49.352 --> 00:09:53.214 and even UTEP Teacher Prep adds in temperature. 00:09:53.214 --> 00:09:55.702 So size, speed, temperature... 00:09:55.702 --> 00:10:00.165 and Ronen Elementary says, you know what makes them dangerous? 00:10:00.165 --> 00:10:02.740 Well, if they could kill people, that would make them dangerous. 00:10:02.740 --> 00:10:05.572 And KWH Elementary in Montana says 00:10:06.259 --> 00:10:09.263 it would be dangerous if an asteroid actually hit a city. 00:10:09.263 --> 00:10:15.013 So the majority, if not everyone, Paul says there's probably millions 00:10:15.013 --> 00:10:18.274 of asteroids and mostly size, 00:10:18.274 --> 00:10:22.050 speed, and location of impact. 00:10:22.050 --> 00:10:24.711 So what do you think, Paul, back to you. 00:10:25.140 --> 00:10:27.715 That's awesome, guys. You guys are right on. Yeah. 00:10:27.715 --> 00:10:29.260 Millions and millions of asteroids. 00:10:29.260 --> 00:10:31.663 We'll get into it a little bit more. 00:10:31.663 --> 00:10:33.722 And there's lots of things. 00:10:33.722 --> 00:10:37.155 Aspects like obviously their size, their velocity, 00:10:37.842 --> 00:10:40.159 what they're made of, all those things. 00:10:40.159 --> 00:10:44.107 Like you said, you're exactly right, come into play to make an asteroid 00:10:44.107 --> 00:10:45.394 potentially dangerous to the earth. 00:10:45.394 --> 00:10:48.570 So this is some of the things that I work on, 00:10:48.913 --> 00:10:52.089 obviously, to try and make sure that, you know, we don't have a bad day. 00:10:52.089 --> 00:10:55.693 We don't want an asteroid to come in, a big asteroid to come in and hit us. 00:10:55.693 --> 00:10:58.440 We, you know, I think you guys may be familiar with 00:10:59.126 --> 00:11:01.873 what happened to the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago, right? 00:11:02.473 --> 00:11:05.563 They didn't have a space program and they were taken out by an asteroid. 00:11:05.563 --> 00:11:09.940 So we have a space program and we want to make sure that that doesn't happen to us. 00:11:10.455 --> 00:11:12.944 So let's get into a little bit more background on asteroids. 00:11:12.944 --> 00:11:14.832 But I think you pretty much all got this. 00:11:14.832 --> 00:11:19.037 But just to just to say this is how it's all going to go. 00:11:19.724 --> 00:11:21.269 So here we are at Earth. 00:11:21.269 --> 00:11:22.299 Here's our happy planet. 00:11:23.672 --> 00:11:26.504 And you can see where the Earth is. 00:11:26.504 --> 00:11:27.620 The yellow dot of the sun. 00:11:27.620 --> 00:11:32.168 There's Mercury, Venus, Earth, the red dot there is Mars. 00:11:32.168 --> 00:11:33.456 We're looking down on the solar system. 00:11:33.456 --> 00:11:37.060 The asteroids are marked and Jupiter is in that orbit 00:11:37.661 --> 00:11:40.751 outside of the asteroid belt. 00:11:41.180 --> 00:11:42.296 And asteroids 00:11:42.296 --> 00:11:45.471 are basically just leftovers from planet formation. 00:11:45.471 --> 00:11:48.217 They're the rocky bits that didn't get incorporated 00:11:48.561 --> 00:11:51.479 into the sun or the other planets right. 00:11:52.251 --> 00:11:54.826 And you're right, there are millions of asteroids. 00:11:54.826 --> 00:11:58.431 But even with all those millions, there's not enough of them, 00:11:58.516 --> 00:12:01.091 the mass of them, to make up what we see in our moon. 00:12:01.091 --> 00:12:01.863 Right. 00:12:02.035 --> 00:12:06.584 So here I show you on the lower right, there's a plot of the inner solar system. 00:12:07.270 --> 00:12:10.188 And you can see this little dot here. 00:12:10.274 --> 00:12:13.106 Hopefully you can see my cursor that is the Earth. 00:12:13.106 --> 00:12:15.939 And you see all those red dots. Those are near-Earth asteroids. 00:12:15.939 --> 00:12:18.685 So we live in a constant swarm of near-Earth asteroids. 00:12:18.685 --> 00:12:19.200 Right. 00:12:19.372 --> 00:12:21.603 That could give us a bad day one day. 00:12:21.603 --> 00:12:22.547 Right now, we're good. 00:12:22.547 --> 00:12:25.465 We don't see anything happening, but we just want to be ready again. 00:12:25.465 --> 00:12:27.182 We don't want to end up like the dinosaurs. 00:12:29.155 --> 00:12:32.846 So here's our Earth, here's the Moon, and here's Ceres. 00:12:32.846 --> 00:12:37.137 Ceres used to be, it was referred to as the biggest asteroid in the main belt. 00:12:37.137 --> 00:12:40.398 It's now, we reclassified it as a dwarf planet. 00:12:41.514 --> 00:12:45.376 And so I'm just going to zoom in here now 00:12:45.376 --> 00:12:48.123 and give you a sense of how big some of these asteroids can be. 00:12:48.981 --> 00:12:51.212 So here's Ceres on the right. 00:12:51.212 --> 00:12:53.873 Here's 4 Vesta on the left. Right. 00:12:53.873 --> 00:12:55.847 Here's Vesta over here. 00:12:55.847 --> 00:12:58.336 And this is the biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt. 00:12:58.336 --> 00:13:00.653 And then all these other asteroids here 00:13:01.168 --> 00:13:05.116 are all asteroids in the main belt that we visited with spacecraft. 00:13:05.116 --> 00:13:09.235 Like all these images I'm showing you are images from spacecraft 00:13:09.235 --> 00:13:11.123 that we've sent out to visit them. 00:13:11.123 --> 00:13:13.097 This little guy down here is an Earth asteroid. 00:13:13.097 --> 00:13:13.698 You can't see it. 00:13:13.698 --> 00:13:16.530 It's it's a small dot, but to scale, you won't be able to see it. 00:13:18.075 --> 00:13:18.504 So I'm going to 00:13:18.504 --> 00:13:21.937 now take you to two asteroids that we recently visited. 00:13:21.937 --> 00:13:25.113 These are near-Earth asteroids, and these are both potentially hazardous. 00:13:25.542 --> 00:13:28.374 And these were visited by NASA 00:13:28.889 --> 00:13:31.464 and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. 00:13:31.893 --> 00:13:35.411 So on the left, we have a Ryugu, asteroid Ryugu, 00:13:35.841 --> 00:13:38.930 it was visited by the Japanese spacecraft called Hayabusa 2. 00:13:39.531 --> 00:13:41.848 And on the right we have asteroid Bennu, 00:13:42.964 --> 00:13:46.139 which was visited by the NASA's spacecraft OSIRIS-Rex. 00:13:46.654 --> 00:13:49.744 So both of these asteroids are potentially hazardous. 00:13:49.744 --> 00:13:52.490 Both of these asteroids are very interesting scientifically 00:13:52.490 --> 00:13:56.009 because they can tell us a lot about the early solar system 00:13:56.524 --> 00:13:59.871 and some of these, both of these asteroids actually contain water. 00:14:00.300 --> 00:14:03.304 So that's really important to understand, to try and figure out, 00:14:04.334 --> 00:14:06.480 you know, how maybe they played 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:09.312 a role in delivering Earth's water early on. 00:14:09.827 --> 00:14:12.831 There's some ideas that these asteroids played an important part 00:14:13.260 --> 00:14:15.405 of life formation on Earth. 00:14:16.778 --> 00:14:17.808 One of the other neat things 00:14:17.808 --> 00:14:21.756 I should tell you is where you have pieces of Ryugu on Earth. 00:14:21.756 --> 00:14:24.417 In fact, we have pieces of Ryugu back here at Johnson Space Center, 00:14:24.417 --> 00:14:27.850 and we're going to get pieces of Bennu back here next year. 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:30.510 The spacecraft returns samples of Bennu 00:14:31.540 --> 00:14:34.544 in about a year's time, and it's going to land in Utah. 00:14:34.544 --> 00:14:37.119 And then we'll have those pieces here at Johnson Space Center. 00:14:37.462 --> 00:14:39.350 So it's a very exciting time. 00:14:39.350 --> 00:14:41.753 But these asteroids are the type of asteroids 00:14:42.955 --> 00:14:45.100 that could potentially give us a bad day. 00:14:45.100 --> 00:14:49.048 These guys aren't going to give us a bad day any time soon, but these are just 00:14:49.048 --> 00:14:52.739 representative of bigger things that we have to watch out for 00:14:56.086 --> 00:14:57.116 OK, so 00:14:57.116 --> 00:15:01.750 here's how it looks in terms of the numbers. 00:15:01.750 --> 00:15:06.985 OK, so on the top part, you have asteroids size and then how often they may hit 00:15:08.187 --> 00:15:09.818 and then 00:15:09.903 --> 00:15:13.251 the impact damage the numbers and the percent discovered. 00:15:13.680 --> 00:15:17.542 And one of the things I want to show you is here's the really big guys up 00:15:17.542 --> 00:15:18.143 here, right? 00:15:18.143 --> 00:15:22.090 The things that are 10,000 meters or 10 kilometers in diameter, 00:15:22.777 --> 00:15:26.296 these are the, this is a type of thing that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million 00:15:26.897 --> 00:15:28.356 years ago. 00:15:28.356 --> 00:15:29.385 There's about four of these. 00:15:29.385 --> 00:15:32.046 We know where every one of these guys is, right? 00:15:32.303 --> 00:15:34.621 So we're safe from them. 00:15:34.621 --> 00:15:38.397 For things that are a kilometer and up, we're doing really, really well. 00:15:38.397 --> 00:15:40.113 We've got 95% known. 00:15:40.113 --> 00:15:43.890 So this blue part is the things that we know about, the grey part is not. 00:15:43.890 --> 00:15:46.979 So we've got about 5% left to find of these guys. 00:15:46.979 --> 00:15:49.983 So we're feeling pretty good, but we can't let down our guard because, 00:15:50.241 --> 00:15:55.047 you know, even a one kilometer diameter asteroid could give us a really bad day. 00:15:55.390 --> 00:15:59.252 So basically a can have a really bad day. 00:16:00.110 --> 00:16:02.513 We're doing pretty well on these bigger ones, right? 00:16:02.771 --> 00:16:04.316 The bigger guys. 00:16:04.316 --> 00:16:06.890 And we want to concentrate on those first 00:16:06.890 --> 00:16:09.808 because those are the ones that I, 00:16:09.808 --> 00:16:12.898 like I said, can give you a really bad day globally over the earth. 00:16:12.898 --> 00:16:15.387 So we concentrate on these guys first. 00:16:15.387 --> 00:16:16.932 If you're really large 00:16:18.305 --> 00:16:19.249 and you're 00:16:19.249 --> 00:16:23.540 basically easier to find, the smaller guys are the ones that are harder find. 00:16:23.540 --> 00:16:26.458 And as you note here, we still have a lot more work to do. 00:16:26.973 --> 00:16:31.093 So it's not to say that we're not too worried about these small guys. 00:16:31.093 --> 00:16:31.865 We are. 00:16:31.865 --> 00:16:34.783 But we have to work harder to try and find them because they're small. 00:16:34.783 --> 00:16:37.615 They move fast and they're dark, right? 00:16:38.044 --> 00:16:41.134 They're not like the sun that gives off their own light. 00:16:41.134 --> 00:16:43.194 They're like the moon. It's reflected sunlight. 00:16:43.194 --> 00:16:46.284 And some of these asteroids are darker than coal. 00:16:46.627 --> 00:16:50.661 So they can be really, really, really, really dark and really hard to find. 00:16:51.090 --> 00:16:53.064 So we've got lots and lots of asteroids. 00:16:53.321 --> 00:16:56.754 Well, us the numbers here, you guys were right in terms of the millions, 00:16:57.355 --> 00:16:59.157 but we have lots of work to do. 00:16:59.157 --> 00:17:02.590 So this is a slide that I also like to refer to as job security for me 00:17:03.105 --> 00:17:06.109 because I have lots of work left to do because there's lots 00:17:06.109 --> 00:17:09.199 of asteroids to locate and make sure that we don't have a bad day. 00:17:11.687 --> 00:17:12.460 All right. 00:17:12.460 --> 00:17:16.064 So I work for planetary defense, NASA. 00:17:16.064 --> 00:17:21.643 We have a planetary defense program and we have lots of aspects of the program. 00:17:21.643 --> 00:17:25.419 So the first thing you got to do is if you get a search, detect and track, 00:17:25.934 --> 00:17:28.766 right, you want to be able to find out where these things are. 00:17:29.195 --> 00:17:32.714 You want to characterize them, figure out what they're like, what they're made of. 00:17:32.886 --> 00:17:35.117 You got to plan and coordinate what you're going to do, 00:17:35.117 --> 00:17:38.207 and then you've got to try and deal with them. 00:17:38.207 --> 00:17:41.554 So it goes like this find the hazards, 00:17:41.554 --> 00:17:44.129 find the dangerous asteroids and find them early, 00:17:45.416 --> 00:17:47.390 defend against them 00:17:47.390 --> 00:17:50.480 and make sure you can protect the earth protect the people. 00:17:50.651 --> 00:17:54.943 And so that's why DART is really important, right? 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:56.230 So DART is 00:17:57.346 --> 00:17:58.547 basically a NASA mission. 00:17:58.547 --> 00:18:02.924 Like I said, and it's out of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office. 00:18:04.469 --> 00:18:07.559 DART is targeting a binary system. 00:18:08.331 --> 00:18:10.648 So binary system, believe it or not, 00:18:10.820 --> 00:18:13.910 sometimes asteroids come in pairs, 00:18:13.910 --> 00:18:15.025 sometimes even triples. 00:18:15.025 --> 00:18:16.999 Triples are really rare, but it pairs. 00:18:16.999 --> 00:18:21.119 So when we have a paired asteroid together, one asteroid 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:24.981 orbiting around another, it's called a binary, right? 00:18:24.981 --> 00:18:29.615 So this larger asteroid, the smaller one is orbiting around it, 00:18:29.787 --> 00:18:32.533 we are going to target this is the DART spacecraft. 00:18:33.048 --> 00:18:36.739 It's going to hit this small asteroid called Dimorphos 00:18:36.996 --> 00:18:39.743 which orbits around Didymos. 00:18:39.743 --> 00:18:45.150 Notice that there's this little spacecraft flying behind DART that's LICIACube. 00:18:45.579 --> 00:18:48.153 When DART smashes into Dimorphos, 00:18:48.325 --> 00:18:52.187 LICIACube is going to watch what happens and report back to Earth. 00:18:52.616 --> 00:18:56.049 So again, DART is targeting a binary asteroid system, 00:18:56.049 --> 00:18:59.139 but we're hitting the smaller one and this asteroid is about 00:18:59.139 --> 00:19:02.143 160 meters in diameter. 00:19:03.344 --> 00:19:04.031 OK, and this is 00:19:04.031 --> 00:19:07.550 just to give you an idea of how big 160 meters is. 00:19:07.807 --> 00:19:09.953 So here's Dimorphos, 160 meters. 00:19:10.553 --> 00:19:14.930 Here's the DART spacecraft 19 meters, right. 00:19:14.930 --> 00:19:17.248 Much smaller, but bigger than a bus, 00:19:17.248 --> 00:19:20.337 smaller than the Arc de Triomphe or the Statue of Liberty. 00:19:21.024 --> 00:19:24.028 Dimorphos is here probably about the same size, 00:19:24.028 --> 00:19:27.117 maybe a little bigger, than the Great Pyramids in Egypt. 00:19:27.718 --> 00:19:29.692 Didymos over here is really big, right? 00:19:30.636 --> 00:19:31.409 Really big. 00:19:31.409 --> 00:19:34.670 So here's the skyscraper, the One World Trade Center 00:19:34.670 --> 00:19:37.502 in New York City, and it's bigger than that. 00:19:37.845 --> 00:19:41.622 So it's just to give you a sense of scale of how big these asteroids can be. 00:19:44.282 --> 00:19:44.711 All right. 00:19:44.711 --> 00:19:48.402 Here's another question for you guys. OK, 00:19:48.745 --> 00:19:50.891 so what do you think 00:19:50.891 --> 00:19:55.353 the DART teams anticipates will happen during the impact? 00:19:55.783 --> 00:19:57.756 So include your reasoning with your answer. 00:19:57.756 --> 00:19:58.701 So you have a choice. 00:19:58.701 --> 00:20:02.133 The asteroid, the little asteroid will completely break up. 00:20:02.133 --> 00:20:04.107 So Dimorphos will completely break up. 00:20:05.051 --> 00:20:07.197 The asteroid will be moved slightly 00:20:08.227 --> 00:20:10.716 or the small asteroid amorphous 00:20:10.716 --> 00:20:13.806 will be pushed away to orbit a different but nearby asteroid. 00:20:15.007 --> 00:20:16.294 Paige over to you. 00:20:16.294 --> 00:20:20.500 As you are putting your answers in the chat again. 00:20:20.500 --> 00:20:23.504 If you're looking, if we would love to give you a shout out, so start 00:20:23.504 --> 00:20:28.910 with your school/org name and give us some reasoning why, 00:20:28.910 --> 00:20:32.944 any thoughts on why you're choosing A, B, or C? 00:20:33.288 --> 00:20:35.261 So we'll see what answers come in. 00:20:35.261 --> 00:20:41.612 I do see some some thoughts in terms of a B's or C's, but we'll wait to see 00:20:41.612 --> 00:20:47.792 the type of reasoning if you can put in some reasoning with your answers. 00:20:47.963 --> 00:20:52.426 So Shaker Heights says B because it's too small to do A or C, 00:20:53.284 --> 00:20:57.833 one of our solar system ambassadors says moved slightly 00:20:57.833 --> 00:21:02.639 because kinetic energy is is in action and only move it a little bit. 00:21:02.639 --> 00:21:06.072 Massabesic Middle School from Maine says B, 00:21:06.072 --> 00:21:09.076 just not enough to change the orbit. 00:21:09.419 --> 00:21:14.311 Manzano Middle School in Brownsville also agrees with B. 00:21:14.311 --> 00:21:19.117 We'll hope to get a little bit of reasoning why Duxbury says 00:21:19.117 --> 00:21:22.550 B, also because the size of the craft is not big enough 00:21:22.550 --> 00:21:26.327 to cause anything larger in terms of the changes. 00:21:26.670 --> 00:21:32.077 Upper Darby also says B, UTEP teacher prep says B 00:21:32.077 --> 00:21:35.939 because DART is again much smaller than the target asteroid. 00:21:36.282 --> 00:21:37.827 St Dominique Academy 00:21:37.827 --> 00:21:41.775 says We don't think the force will be powerful enough to break it up. 00:21:41.775 --> 00:21:45.122 So we think B or potentially C, but not A. 00:21:45.551 --> 00:21:50.357 San Benito High School says B because there's not enough force to do A or C. 00:21:51.130 --> 00:21:55.936 Our Lady of Perpetual Help says they think possibly A 00:21:55.936 --> 00:22:00.141 because it would be launched with enough force to break it. 00:22:00.141 --> 00:22:04.175 So a lot of kinetic energy and Manzano Middle School says it's 00:22:04.175 --> 00:22:09.324 too large to be destroyed in one blast, meaning the asteroid. 00:22:09.582 --> 00:22:14.388 So some very interesting thoughts, and the reasoning becomes, 00:22:14.474 --> 00:22:18.679 you know, such an important aspect of answering any questions. 00:22:18.679 --> 00:22:22.884 So Paul mostly B's and you heard some of those reasonings. 00:22:22.884 --> 00:22:24.344 What do you think? 00:22:24.344 --> 00:22:25.717 That's that's great, guys. 00:22:25.717 --> 00:22:29.321 Actually, we're not exactly sure what will happen. 00:22:29.321 --> 00:22:31.467 That's one of the reasons why we're doing this test. 00:22:31.467 --> 00:22:33.441 Remember, this is a test 00:22:34.900 --> 00:22:35.501 but we think 00:22:35.501 --> 00:22:38.504 B is probably more likely, right? 00:22:39.706 --> 00:22:42.538 Every time we go to see 00:22:42.538 --> 00:22:45.799 an asteroid up close and personal, we are surprised by something. 00:22:45.885 --> 00:22:47.430 Right. And we've done that. 00:22:47.430 --> 00:22:50.606 I've been on several spacecraft missions and we think we have a good idea 00:22:50.606 --> 00:22:51.378 of what it's like. 00:22:51.378 --> 00:22:52.837 And then we get there and they're like, holy cow, 00:22:52.837 --> 00:22:56.356 this is completely different than what we saw or what we thought. 00:22:56.785 --> 00:23:00.389 And so we think it's going to be B, but we really don't know. 00:23:00.389 --> 00:23:04.166 I think the chance of C or A are unlikely. 00:23:05.711 --> 00:23:07.255 But we'll see. We'll see. 00:23:07.255 --> 00:23:08.629 But B is the weighted bet. 00:23:08.629 --> 00:23:13.263 I think that's what we're going to lean on and we'll see in a few days time. 00:23:13.521 --> 00:23:15.666 What actually happens? 00:23:16.267 --> 00:23:17.554 OK, so 00:23:18.670 --> 00:23:19.528 here's a little bit 00:23:19.528 --> 00:23:22.704 more detail about the the mission, right? 00:23:22.704 --> 00:23:27.424 So we're I already told you, we're targeting this binary asteroid system. 00:23:27.853 --> 00:23:31.372 It's called the Didymos system because the big asteroid is Didymos, 00:23:32.573 --> 00:23:34.633 the small one is Dimorphos. 00:23:34.633 --> 00:23:37.122 We want to measure the change. 00:23:37.122 --> 00:23:39.354 We think that we're not going to break it up. 00:23:39.354 --> 00:23:41.327 We think we're not going to push it out 00:23:41.327 --> 00:23:45.190 of the orbit and make it go away and orbit another asteroid. 00:23:45.447 --> 00:23:48.622 We think we're going to change its motion slightly. 00:23:48.622 --> 00:23:51.026 So change the orbit around 00:23:52.828 --> 00:23:54.115 Didymos, right. 00:23:54.115 --> 00:23:58.921 So if that orbit changes slightly, we can measure this change from Earth. 00:23:59.350 --> 00:24:00.552 So that's what we have here. 00:24:00.552 --> 00:24:03.041 We're going to have Earth based observations. 00:24:03.041 --> 00:24:05.358 They're going to look at the orbit. 00:24:05.358 --> 00:24:08.963 We're characterizing the orbit now, and then we'll see 00:24:08.963 --> 00:24:11.795 after the impact if there's any change. 00:24:12.138 --> 00:24:14.541 So here's DART again. 00:24:14.541 --> 00:24:17.459 19 meters across with this solar panels here. 00:24:17.888 --> 00:24:22.008 The main spacecraft here is probably the size of a large freezer. 00:24:22.523 --> 00:24:24.239 You might have like at home. 00:24:24.239 --> 00:24:27.930 I show you some images of the spacecraft up close and personal later on. 00:24:29.818 --> 00:24:31.363 It's traveling really fast. 00:24:31.363 --> 00:24:33.680 14,000 miles per hour when it hits. 00:24:34.195 --> 00:24:35.568 So it's going to hit. 00:24:35.568 --> 00:24:39.945 And this is the exact time we know this because we have really accurate 00:24:39.945 --> 00:24:44.665 measurements of how fast DART is moving with respect to Dimorphos. 00:24:44.665 --> 00:24:48.871 So September 26 at 7:14 p.m. 00:24:48.871 --> 00:24:50.673 Eastern Daylight Time. 00:24:50.673 --> 00:24:53.248 Stay tuned because that's when we're going to hit 00:24:55.050 --> 00:24:56.681 our asteroid OK? 00:24:56.681 --> 00:24:58.826 And then like I said, we have the LICIACube, 00:24:58.826 --> 00:25:03.032 this little free-flier spacecraft that was deployed after DART 00:25:03.289 --> 00:25:06.636 that will after DART was launched 00:25:06.636 --> 00:25:09.983 and just recently deployed actually just a couple of days ago from DART. 00:25:10.584 --> 00:25:14.103 You'll see that in an animation and it will monitor 00:25:14.189 --> 00:25:16.935 and watch what happens as DART slams into 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:19.939 Dimorphos. 00:25:20.969 --> 00:25:24.059 OK, so one of the things is we think 00:25:24.488 --> 00:25:28.350 Dimorphos is going to be moved slightly, but we don't know by how much. 00:25:28.350 --> 00:25:29.036 Right. 00:25:29.208 --> 00:25:33.242 And a lot of it depends on what the asteroid is made of 00:25:33.242 --> 00:25:36.503 and how it reacts to DART Impact. 00:25:37.104 --> 00:25:39.507 So in the best case, 00:25:39.507 --> 00:25:42.854 we think we have an impact 00:25:43.541 --> 00:25:46.201 and a small momentum enhancement. 00:25:46.201 --> 00:25:48.003 In other words, you push it. 00:25:48.003 --> 00:25:51.007 There's not a lot of big crater. 00:25:51.007 --> 00:25:53.067 There's not a lot of debris formed. 00:25:53.067 --> 00:25:56.843 And so you just get a slight motion movement, slight movement. 00:25:58.560 --> 00:25:58.903 The other 00:25:58.903 --> 00:26:03.023 cases, hey, we hit it a bit the same energy. 00:26:03.537 --> 00:26:07.142 But because of the asteroids composition and how it's put together, 00:26:07.142 --> 00:26:08.429 there's a lot of debris. 00:26:08.429 --> 00:26:11.605 There's a lot more debris thrown up and that debris acts 00:26:11.605 --> 00:26:13.150 as like a little thruster. 00:26:13.150 --> 00:26:15.896 So you get more push this way, right? 00:26:16.497 --> 00:26:19.930 So maybe the efficiency is a little bit higher in terms of the impact 00:26:19.930 --> 00:26:21.990 and how far we move it. 00:26:21.990 --> 00:26:24.822 And then if we get a real large 00:26:24.822 --> 00:26:29.714 amount of debris or ejecta, as we call it, because the asteroid may be very weak, 00:26:30.315 --> 00:26:32.374 then we can get a really significant push. 00:26:32.803 --> 00:26:37.009 So these are some ideas, but we really don't know how 00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:40.270 Dimorphos will react to DART. 00:26:40.270 --> 00:26:42.673 And that's why we're doing the test. 00:26:42.673 --> 00:26:46.106 It's sort of like, you know, every time you want to do something, 00:26:46.106 --> 00:26:49.797 whether you're playing for sports or you're playing a musical instrument, 00:26:50.226 --> 00:26:52.371 or anything, you practice. And that's what we're doing. 00:26:52.371 --> 00:26:55.633 We're practicing planetary defense because we want to make sure 00:26:55.633 --> 00:26:59.752 that we get this right so that if we do have to do this for real, 00:27:00.439 --> 00:27:03.185 we know what we're going to do and we'll be successful 00:27:05.416 --> 00:27:08.163 OK, so here's the ideal time. 00:27:08.163 --> 00:27:10.308 So here's an animation I've got. 00:27:10.909 --> 00:27:13.226 Didymos in the orbit there, 00:27:14.600 --> 00:27:17.518 DART is launched from Earth, 00:27:17.518 --> 00:27:19.577 and you can see 00:27:19.577 --> 00:27:23.268 they're going to meet up and eventually going to impact. 00:27:23.268 --> 00:27:25.328 This is actually a relatively short mission. 00:27:25.328 --> 00:27:29.275 DART was launched on the 24th of November and 20, 21 00:27:30.305 --> 00:27:35.111 and then you'll see it's going to hit here in September 2620, 22. 00:27:35.712 --> 00:27:37.257 So it's a 00:27:37.600 --> 00:27:40.948 short mission but actually a very, very important mission. 00:27:41.033 --> 00:27:45.067 So that just gives you an idea of sort of the, the overall geometry 00:27:45.067 --> 00:27:49.015 of how things go when we launch and then impact this particular asteroid. 00:27:49.444 --> 00:27:53.306 And the reason why it's, it's a good time is because 00:27:54.508 --> 00:27:58.885 Didymos and Dimorphos are very close to the Earth at the time of impact. 00:27:59.142 --> 00:28:00.601 See how close they are here. 00:28:00.601 --> 00:28:03.605 So we have a better chance of seeing what happens from the ground 00:28:03.777 --> 00:28:05.064 it's not way far away. 00:28:05.064 --> 00:28:09.355 On the other side of the sun, we get to observe what happens with our telescopes. 00:28:09.956 --> 00:28:11.758 So that'll be that's really important 00:28:13.818 --> 00:28:16.049 so again, here's an animation 00:28:17.251 --> 00:28:18.796 so we're observing from Earth. 00:28:18.796 --> 00:28:21.542 Here are our ground based observations, you see, 00:28:21.971 --> 00:28:24.975 and we monitor Dimorphos 00:28:26.262 --> 00:28:27.721 orbiting Didymos. 00:28:27.721 --> 00:28:30.725 And there's the original orbit that's mapped out, as you can see, 00:28:32.785 --> 00:28:36.046 and then all of a sudden DART comes along 00:28:36.132 --> 00:28:38.364 and launches LICIACube. 00:28:39.222 --> 00:28:43.256 So there's the impact from DART, LICIACube flies by but watches 00:28:43.771 --> 00:28:46.689 and then reports back all the information, 00:28:46.689 --> 00:28:49.349 all the data that it took, all the pictures that it took, 00:28:50.293 --> 00:28:54.327 and then hopefully we've changed the orbit of Dimorphos. 00:28:54.327 --> 00:28:59.390 So that new orbit, you can see it's much different than what it was before. 00:28:59.390 --> 00:29:01.450 We've actually slowed Dimorphos down 00:29:02.566 --> 00:29:04.111 and we've changed the orbit. 00:29:04.111 --> 00:29:09.003 Even if we change an orbit just by a little bit, you know, we're hoping for 1%, 00:29:09.518 --> 00:29:14.581 but that will be able to tell a lot over time with our ground based telescopes. 00:29:14.581 --> 00:29:16.555 We're really good at measuring things. 00:29:16.555 --> 00:29:20.074 So even that small little change will be able to see really, really easily 00:29:22.906 --> 00:29:24.537 and this is how we do it. 00:29:24.537 --> 00:29:28.828 This is why this particular asteroid, the binary asteroids, are so fun. 00:29:29.515 --> 00:29:33.634 So one of the things I'm showing here is on this axis, 00:29:33.634 --> 00:29:36.810 you'll see here's brightness, how bright the signal is 00:29:36.810 --> 00:29:39.127 from both asteroids. 00:29:39.985 --> 00:29:42.817 Over time, and you'll see these dips. 00:29:43.246 --> 00:29:45.993 So when Dimorphos goes behind it, almost, there's a dip. 00:29:45.993 --> 00:29:48.567 The light is lessened because we're not getting as much light. 00:29:49.082 --> 00:29:52.172 Both asteroids are in light and reflecting back to us. 00:29:52.172 --> 00:29:53.974 So it's big now. 00:29:53.974 --> 00:29:56.120 Dimorphos goes in front and eclipses 00:29:56.978 --> 00:29:59.639 and now it goes behind 00:29:59.639 --> 00:30:01.956 and there's a dip now comes out 00:30:02.643 --> 00:30:05.131 and we're back up to full brightness 00:30:05.131 --> 00:30:08.307 and then it will go in front, a dip 00:30:08.650 --> 00:30:12.684 shadow eclipse and then back up to full brightness. 00:30:13.199 --> 00:30:18.777 So what we're doing is we are measuring the normal orbit period. 00:30:18.777 --> 00:30:22.039 So the timing of these dips, 00:30:23.154 --> 00:30:25.729 we can measure very accurately. 00:30:26.072 --> 00:30:29.849 When the orbit changes, the timing of these dips will shift 00:30:30.364 --> 00:30:33.539 so this dip here, for example, will be shifted this way. 00:30:33.797 --> 00:30:38.517 It may be shifted shorter, and we can measure that and then figure out how hard 00:30:38.774 --> 00:30:43.066 and how efficient we are in changing the orbit of Dimorphos. 00:30:43.066 --> 00:30:46.327 And that helps us understand how we can deflect 00:30:46.756 --> 00:30:50.189 a dangerous asteroid in the future, how hard we have to hit it, 00:30:50.532 --> 00:30:51.905 and where 00:30:53.450 --> 00:30:56.368 OK, so remember I said there's lots of people 00:30:56.368 --> 00:30:59.715 all over the world that are working on this mission, right? 00:31:00.402 --> 00:31:05.036 So here's an example of all the telescopes 00:31:05.637 --> 00:31:10.615 that are looking at Dimorphos and Didymos, OK? 00:31:10.873 --> 00:31:13.018 We have the United States. 00:31:13.705 --> 00:31:14.563 We have 00:31:15.250 --> 00:31:16.966 United States and mainland United States. 00:31:16.966 --> 00:31:21.000 We also have Hawaii, we have South America, Africa, Europe. 00:31:21.600 --> 00:31:26.321 We have some assets in Asia, Australia, even in Antarctica. 00:31:26.321 --> 00:31:28.724 We have a telescope that is is looking at. 00:31:29.153 --> 00:31:30.097 We also have 00:31:31.299 --> 00:31:33.101 telescopes in space. 00:31:33.101 --> 00:31:36.362 Here's the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope. 00:31:36.791 --> 00:31:40.739 Also the Lucy spacecraft on its way to Jupiter is going to look back 00:31:41.082 --> 00:31:44.945 and look and see what happens when DART slams into Dimorphos. 00:31:45.202 --> 00:31:49.922 So we have lots and lots of telescopes that are observing, and we'll do this 00:31:50.094 --> 00:31:54.643 constantly we're observing right now from we've started last year 00:31:55.072 --> 00:31:58.419 and we're going to be going through into 2023 00:31:58.419 --> 00:32:05.714 to see what happens with Dimorphos. 00:32:06.143 --> 00:32:07.860 This is what it looks like I don't know if you guys can pick this out, 00:32:07.860 --> 00:32:11.292 but this is some observations that one of my colleagues, 00:32:11.292 --> 00:32:14.039 one of my friends made from the Lowell Observatory 00:32:14.554 --> 00:32:18.073 uh, this is just, you know, in July, just a few months ago, 00:32:18.502 --> 00:32:21.076 and here's the asteroid, you can see it move. 00:32:21.076 --> 00:32:25.453 So this is did a mouse and what he's doing here 00:32:25.453 --> 00:32:28.286 is in this camera just monitoring the motion 00:32:28.801 --> 00:32:32.148 but you can put an instrument and measure the change in brightness 00:32:32.577 --> 00:32:37.726 so he can actually figure out the rotation period of that eclipse those dips. 00:32:37.726 --> 00:32:41.417 Remember I showed you on the light curve as we call it, and get the timing. 00:32:41.417 --> 00:32:44.506 So this is what all these telescopes are going to do. 00:32:44.506 --> 00:32:45.879 They're very sensitive 00:32:45.879 --> 00:32:48.969 and they can measure those very, very subtle changes in brightness 00:32:49.484 --> 00:32:51.630 of the asteroid as it moves through. 00:32:51.630 --> 00:32:55.492 So that's what we're going to be doing for the next several months 00:32:55.749 --> 00:32:58.667 after the impact to try and measure the change in orbit 00:33:02.529 --> 00:33:03.559 OK, so 00:33:03.559 --> 00:33:06.820 here's the DART spacecraft up close and personal. 00:33:06.820 --> 00:33:08.966 This is an artist's picture of it. 00:33:09.824 --> 00:33:11.970 One of the things I want to show you is this is DRACO. 00:33:12.399 --> 00:33:15.060 DRACO is our eyes. 00:33:15.660 --> 00:33:18.578 This is the only instrument that we have on the spacecraft. 00:33:19.265 --> 00:33:22.269 And it's basically a telescope camera. 00:33:23.041 --> 00:33:25.616 DRACO stands for Detachment, Reconnaissance 00:33:26.217 --> 00:33:30.937 and Asteroid Camera for OPNAV or Optical Navigation. 00:33:31.366 --> 00:33:36.258 So this camera is used to find Didymos to help characterize it 00:33:36.601 --> 00:33:39.863 and then help guide the spacecraft to impact it. 00:33:42.781 --> 00:33:45.613 And this is about an hour out. 00:33:46.042 --> 00:33:47.415 This is what 00:33:47.844 --> 00:33:49.732 DRACO would see. 00:33:49.732 --> 00:33:53.165 So you see, Didymos was, is the bigger asteroid. 00:33:53.165 --> 00:33:57.199 It's now honing in, aiming at Dimorphos. 00:33:57.800 --> 00:34:02.177 And you can see as it zooms in, this is really fast, right? 00:34:02.177 --> 00:34:03.893 The spacecraft is moving really fast, 00:34:05.095 --> 00:34:07.240 and it doesn't 00:34:07.240 --> 00:34:11.446 take long for it to come up on Dimorphos and then hit it. 00:34:12.476 --> 00:34:13.935 So here we are. 00:34:13.935 --> 00:34:16.939 We're still thousands of kilometers away, but we're only 4 minutes 00:34:17.368 --> 00:34:19.342 away from impact 00:34:20.457 --> 00:34:22.088 and this is probably the last sort 00:34:22.088 --> 00:34:26.293 of the last image that we would see from maybe about nine kilometers out. 00:34:26.293 --> 00:34:29.984 We would get an image of the surface right before the signal goes dead 00:34:29.984 --> 00:34:33.073 as the spacecraft smashes into the asteroid. 00:34:34.618 --> 00:34:36.850 OK, so this is an animation. 00:34:36.850 --> 00:34:40.197 This is what it would look like if you were standing on Dimorphos. 00:34:40.712 --> 00:34:43.029 You're looking at your big friend Didymos over there. 00:34:43.029 --> 00:34:44.745 Everything's fine. 00:34:44.745 --> 00:34:46.462 What a nice day it is. 00:34:46.462 --> 00:34:48.607 You're looking at the stars. 00:34:48.607 --> 00:34:51.526 It's a beautiful night, starry sky. 00:34:52.384 --> 00:34:54.615 You're enjoying the drawing, the view, 00:34:55.302 --> 00:34:58.134 and then you start to see something 00:34:58.906 --> 00:35:01.653 and you're not exactly sure what it is, 00:35:02.253 --> 00:35:05.515 but it's getting closer and closer and closer and closer. 00:35:05.515 --> 00:35:07.832 And you're like, hey, that's a spacecraft. 00:35:08.433 --> 00:35:11.351 And it smashes into the asteroid, right? 00:35:13.754 --> 00:35:15.985 OK, so this is what 00:35:16.929 --> 00:35:19.504 DART looked like before it got loaded into the rocket. 00:35:19.847 --> 00:35:24.911 OK, so these are the rolled-up solar arrays before they were deployed. 00:35:24.911 --> 00:35:26.971 So these are tightly rolled up. 00:35:26.971 --> 00:35:30.490 There's one on the side and one on the other side of the engine. 00:35:30.490 --> 00:35:35.210 One of the engines for DART is up here the camera, Draco is down here 00:35:35.725 --> 00:35:36.583 and this little boxing [audio lost, 00:35:36.583 --> 00:35:38.643 but this is referring to LICIACube] So this is already deployed. 00:35:38.643 --> 00:35:40.788 And we've got signal from LICIACube]. 00:35:40.788 --> 00:35:44.650 It's flying along behind DART and operating really, really well. 00:35:45.080 --> 00:35:47.054 So this is just to give you a sense of scale. 00:35:47.054 --> 00:35:49.800 Like I said, it's it's about the size of a big freezer 00:35:53.748 --> 00:35:54.778 here's the rocket. 00:35:54.778 --> 00:35:55.464 It rolls on. 00:35:55.464 --> 00:36:00.185 So this is the nose cone of the rocket or what we call the payload fairing. 00:36:00.185 --> 00:36:01.558 That's this bit up here. 00:36:02.588 --> 00:36:04.218 Here's a person for scale. 00:36:04.218 --> 00:36:09.454 Here's DART in the nose cone of the rocket right before it's sealed up. 00:36:09.797 --> 00:36:13.230 And this is the size of the rocket so this is a Space X Falcon 00:36:13.230 --> 00:36:15.290 9 rocket, really big rocket. 00:36:16.491 --> 00:36:19.409 And it was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base out in California. 00:36:19.409 --> 00:36:21.469 So it was a great, great night. 00:36:22.070 --> 00:36:25.073 It was a nighttime launch. I was there. 00:36:25.073 --> 00:36:26.018 Tremendous view. 00:36:26.018 --> 00:36:29.450 This is what it looked like going through the the clouds and the fog. 00:36:29.622 --> 00:36:32.283 And it was actually spectacular. 00:36:32.283 --> 00:36:35.372 And you can watch: Eight, 00:36:35.716 --> 00:36:40.093 Seven, six, five, four, three, 00:36:40.608 --> 00:36:43.440 two, one, 00:36:44.298 --> 00:36:46.272 and liftoff 00:36:46.272 --> 00:36:51.164 of the self-designed DART on NASA's first planetary defense test 00:36:51.164 --> 00:36:54.254 to crash into an asteroid. 00:36:56.485 --> 00:36:58.201 So we were really happy. 00:36:58.201 --> 00:36:59.489 We got a really great launch 00:36:59.489 --> 00:37:02.578 and a really great trajectory from the Falcon 9 and everything was good. 00:37:02.578 --> 00:37:06.441 [job of Falcon nine was the best] this shows the DART on the spacecraft 00:37:06.698 --> 00:37:07.127 separation. 00:37:07.127 --> 00:37:10.903 At this point, we've gotten enough velocity, enough speed 00:37:11.247 --> 00:37:14.336 to send DART off towards the Didymos system. 00:37:14.680 --> 00:37:15.709 And right now, 00:37:15.709 --> 00:37:19.486 we're in range of the ground station so we can get all the data from and so 00:37:19.486 --> 00:37:22.490 we can make sure we can actually capture this operation confirmed. 00:37:22.833 --> 00:37:25.923 And we just heard to call out for spacecraft separation. 00:37:25.923 --> 00:37:29.785 You can see the video of the DART spacecraft 00:37:30.557 --> 00:37:32.874 on its way, heading on its way to the Didymos system. 00:37:33.046 --> 00:37:34.762 What a spectacular view 00:37:35.706 --> 00:37:37.337 of DART. Yep. 00:37:37.337 --> 00:37:40.083 Just floating away from the Falcon 9 second stage. 00:37:40.942 --> 00:37:41.972 Yeah, it was a great video. 00:37:41.972 --> 00:37:44.117 So you get to see this is the Draco camera. 00:37:44.117 --> 00:37:47.293 This is the the antenna to communicate back where they're at. 00:37:47.293 --> 00:37:48.923 The solar arrays are still not deployed. 00:37:48.923 --> 00:37:50.554 They're pulled up. 00:37:50.554 --> 00:37:52.700 So it's a, it was a great, great deployment. 00:37:54.759 --> 00:37:55.188 All right. 00:37:55.188 --> 00:37:57.935 Question for you guys. 00:37:57.935 --> 00:38:02.655 Earth is not currently at risk of being impacted by a large asteroid. 00:38:02.998 --> 00:38:05.745 So that's something I should really stress to you guys, right? 00:38:05.745 --> 00:38:07.547 I sleep pretty well at night. 00:38:07.547 --> 00:38:10.293 One of my jobs is to help protect the Earth from asteroids. 00:38:10.980 --> 00:38:12.954 I'm pretty pretty happy 00:38:12.954 --> 00:38:16.902 about how things go for right now, but we still have to be careful. 00:38:16.902 --> 00:38:17.503 Right? 00:38:17.846 --> 00:38:20.936 So why is the DART mission important? 00:38:21.708 --> 00:38:27.201 And Paige, I'll turn it over to you to get the response from the participants. 00:38:27.973 --> 00:38:31.835 So we want to hear from you and your thoughts on, you know, if 00:38:31.835 --> 00:38:36.813 Earth is not currently at risk, why is a mission like Dart important? 00:38:37.242 --> 00:38:38.529 So think about that. 00:38:38.529 --> 00:38:41.705 And again, put your school name in there first if you can, so 00:38:41.705 --> 00:38:44.966 we can give you a shout a shout out. And 00:38:46.082 --> 00:38:47.884 this might require a little bit of thinking 00:38:47.884 --> 00:38:51.832 because this is a bit of a higher level kind of question. 00:38:52.090 --> 00:38:54.235 But we've got responses Paul, coming in. 00:38:54.235 --> 00:38:56.982 Duxbury Senior Center says we need a plan. 00:38:57.325 --> 00:39:02.646 San Benito High School says to protect us from possible future risk. 00:39:02.903 --> 00:39:07.109 UTEP mentions that in case we have a potential repeat 00:39:07.109 --> 00:39:10.885 of the event like that occurred in Russia, one of our solar system 00:39:10.885 --> 00:39:15.176 ambassadors says to help deflecting smaller asteroids, 00:39:15.520 --> 00:39:18.781 Upper Darby High School says to be prepared for the worse. 00:39:19.038 --> 00:39:22.471 And in case we are ever at risk, in the future. 00:39:23.072 --> 00:39:27.020 Shaker Heights High School mentions it's the asteroids. 00:39:27.020 --> 00:39:31.740 We haven't discovered yet that we need to be prepared for Alfred 00:39:31.740 --> 00:39:35.860 Elementary says it's important to be ready for the future possible tragedies 00:39:35.860 --> 00:39:37.490 for Earth or other planets. 00:39:38.434 --> 00:39:41.438 Another solar system ambassador says the change in orbit 00:39:41.438 --> 00:39:45.558 will determine what type of impact energy will be required to deflect 00:39:45.558 --> 00:39:49.592 an asteroid incoming to Earth, perhaps in the future. 00:39:50.278 --> 00:39:53.539 Masssabesic Middle School from Maine says in the future 00:39:53.711 --> 00:39:57.745 we will know how to change the trajectory of an asteroid. 00:39:57.916 --> 00:40:01.521 Now St Dominique Academy says we might need defense in the future. 00:40:01.521 --> 00:40:03.238 We don't want to get surprised. 00:40:03.238 --> 00:40:06.241 St Laurence Middle School says the potential 00:40:06.499 --> 00:40:08.816 of asteroids coming to Earth 00:40:09.417 --> 00:40:11.648 to try out this type of response 00:40:11.992 --> 00:40:14.995 like and then we have Our Lady of Perpetual Help 00:40:14.995 --> 00:40:19.544 says in case a large asteroid comes in close in the future, 00:40:20.231 --> 00:40:25.466 so so we have some people that really have their their thinking caps on there. 00:40:25.466 --> 00:40:28.298 Paul, well what do you think of these types of responses? 00:40:28.899 --> 00:40:31.216 Those are those are some great responses, right? 00:40:31.216 --> 00:40:32.933 That's exactly what we we're doing. 00:40:32.933 --> 00:40:35.421 We're trying to get ready just in case. Right? 00:40:35.421 --> 00:40:37.052 Right now we're not at risk. 00:40:37.052 --> 00:40:39.884 But as that slide and some of the things I showed you, 00:40:40.228 --> 00:40:42.631 asteroids, small asteroids do hit us all the time. 00:40:42.631 --> 00:40:45.806 We just want to make sure that we don't get hit by a big one. 00:40:45.806 --> 00:40:47.608 And we don't know exactly where. 00:40:47.608 --> 00:40:49.239 We don't know exactly when. 00:40:49.239 --> 00:40:50.784 We also don't know exactly how big. 00:40:50.784 --> 00:40:52.329 So we just got to be ready. 00:40:52.329 --> 00:40:54.989 And so that's why the DART mission is really important. 00:40:54.989 --> 00:40:57.736 Like I said, it's it's a test for planetary defense. 00:40:57.736 --> 00:41:02.799 We're practicing helping protect the Earth from an asteroid impact. 00:41:02.799 --> 00:41:07.090 And one of the things that I did say, I think I saw someone in the chat 00:41:07.949 --> 00:41:08.549 move through. 00:41:08.549 --> 00:41:10.781 Someone mentioned that it might be important later on if 00:41:11.038 --> 00:41:12.326 if we're on the moon or Mars. 00:41:12.326 --> 00:41:14.042 And that's exactly right. 00:41:14.042 --> 00:41:16.102 One of the things that is planetary defense, 00:41:17.046 --> 00:41:20.393 our primary planet that we have to protect is Earth. 00:41:20.822 --> 00:41:24.084 But if we have people living elsewhere on the moon or 00:41:24.084 --> 00:41:27.517 Mars, we need to think about also protecting them out there. 00:41:27.517 --> 00:41:30.091 And so that's why we we try and do all these things. 00:41:30.091 --> 00:41:33.438 So those are some great answers and great responses 00:41:35.756 --> 00:41:38.244 OK, so 00:41:38.244 --> 00:41:40.562 here's a slide for you guys. 00:41:40.562 --> 00:41:45.368 If you want to be a planetary defender, please join me and my team. 00:41:45.368 --> 00:41:46.140 Right. 00:41:46.226 --> 00:41:48.629 So there's a couple of websites I put on here. 00:41:48.972 --> 00:41:51.461 There's lots of social media. 00:41:51.461 --> 00:41:55.581 I'll leave this up for a bit so people can maybe capture 00:41:56.697 --> 00:41:59.529 and Page will put it in a follow up email to your 00:42:00.044 --> 00:42:02.189 to your teachers and other people that are 00:42:03.219 --> 00:42:05.451 running these these meetings. 00:42:05.451 --> 00:42:08.283 But basically you can become a planet defender. 00:42:08.283 --> 00:42:14.720 You can join the DART team as we go and about to smash into Didymos. 00:42:15.063 --> 00:42:17.638 So all of these things are going to be great. 00:42:17.638 --> 00:42:19.097 Please follow along. 00:42:19.097 --> 00:42:23.817 And there's lots of resources out there and lots of fun things to do as well. 00:42:24.332 --> 00:42:27.593 For example, we have a whole outreach webpage 00:42:28.022 --> 00:42:32.485 where you can get information on how to print 3D models of 00:42:32.743 --> 00:42:36.090 not only the DART spacecraft but also the Didymos-Dimorphos system. 00:42:37.034 --> 00:42:39.866 You can do an augmented reality experience. 00:42:40.638 --> 00:42:43.986 We have models, toy bricks, the models that you can build. 00:42:44.329 --> 00:42:45.359 And then we also have 00:42:46.389 --> 00:42:48.792 information on how to host a watch party 00:42:48.792 --> 00:42:53.941 where you can actually watch the event in real time as it happens. 00:42:53.941 --> 00:42:58.919 So lots of exciting things for you guys to think about and hopefully you'll 00:42:58.919 --> 00:43:02.781 join us and maybe even have a watch party on the night, Monday night, 00:43:03.296 --> 00:43:05.441 September 26 00:43:06.471 --> 00:43:07.244 so here's a video. 00:43:07.244 --> 00:43:08.188 I'm just going to let this play. 00:43:08.188 --> 00:43:30.330 This is a good idea to sum up everything about the DART 00:43:30.330 --> 00:43:49.898 mission. 00:43:49.984 --> 00:43:51.357 Make a point. 00:44:16.933 --> 00:44:19.078 And that's it. 00:44:22.340 --> 00:44:25.343 So feel free to follow along. 00:44:25.343 --> 00:44:30.150 The live coverage starts on NASA TV, and that's a YouTube and Facebook, Twitter 00:44:30.750 --> 00:44:32.982 starting live coverage at 6 p.m. 00:44:32.982 --> 00:44:36.844 Eastern Daylight Time going through 730 again the impact is scheduled for 00:44:37.187 --> 00:44:38.646 7:14 p.m. 00:44:38.646 --> 00:44:42.079 Eastern Daylight pause here and I will turn on my video and see if 00:44:42.079 --> 00:44:44.997 there are any other questions if we have time. 00:44:45.598 --> 00:44:48.945 Absolutely, Paul and absolutely incredible. 00:44:49.546 --> 00:44:52.206 In the chat folks are indicating 00:44:52.206 --> 00:44:55.468 how awesome this presentation was. 00:44:55.468 --> 00:45:00.445 And so we very much appreciate you generating, not only the knowledge, 00:45:00.617 --> 00:45:04.136 but the excitement about what is to come on 00:45:04.136 --> 00:45:08.084 September 26th and all that has led up to it. 00:45:08.084 --> 00:45:12.547 So fantastic and we do have questions and for folks 00:45:12.547 --> 00:45:16.580 that have been thinking about questions they might have if you haven't 00:45:16.580 --> 00:45:21.129 put your questions in the Q&A area, yet, feel free to put them in 00:45:21.129 --> 00:45:25.678 and we'll try to have Paul answer as many questions as possible. 00:45:26.278 --> 00:45:29.111 So Paul, I'm going to start with this question that came in. 00:45:29.625 --> 00:45:32.887 Will the DART mission be able to determine anything 00:45:32.887 --> 00:45:36.663 about the composition of either of the asteroids? 00:45:38.208 --> 00:45:38.894 Yeah, well, 00:45:38.894 --> 00:45:42.070 actually, the the ground based telescopes, 00:45:42.070 --> 00:45:44.902 we have an idea of what the composition of the 00:45:46.104 --> 00:45:49.365 the main big asteroid is, Didymos, right. 00:45:49.708 --> 00:45:53.484 The smaller one is a little bit too small to get a signal from. 00:45:54.686 --> 00:45:58.033 We think it's related just because of the way binary asteroids form. 00:45:58.033 --> 00:46:02.582 So we think it's actually a piece of Didymos that's been spun off 00:46:03.011 --> 00:46:05.671 and then captured in orbit. 00:46:07.388 --> 00:46:09.190 But in terms of the spacecrafts itself, 00:46:09.190 --> 00:46:12.709 it won't determine per say, the actual composition. 00:46:13.481 --> 00:46:17.343 We'll get some hints on some of the internal structure 00:46:17.343 --> 00:46:20.776 and how it's all put together and what the geology is like. 00:46:21.120 --> 00:46:24.896 But in terms of the actual composition, whether it's a certain type of 00:46:25.325 --> 00:46:29.702 of meteorite, certain type of minerals that doesn't come necessarily from DART, 00:46:30.045 --> 00:46:33.307 but we get that a lot from the ground based observations, which we are 00:46:33.564 --> 00:46:35.452 which we are doing. 00:46:35.452 --> 00:46:39.143 I should mention there's a follow up mission that actually will be able 00:46:39.143 --> 00:46:43.262 to determine the compositions of these asteroids up close and personal. 00:46:43.691 --> 00:46:46.609 And actually look at the crater that we made afterwards. 00:46:47.468 --> 00:46:51.759 I didn't have time to go into it today, but there's a European Space Agency 00:46:51.759 --> 00:46:57.252 mission, the ESA mission called HERA, which is going to launch in 00:46:57.252 --> 00:47:01.800 about a couple of years, and it will get to DART in the year 2027. 00:47:02.487 --> 00:47:06.864 That spacecraft is going to go and rendezvous with the Didymos system 00:47:07.379 --> 00:47:11.927 and observe data most and more folks, and it will have instruments 00:47:12.271 --> 00:47:16.734 to analyze the composition of Dimorphos 00:47:16.734 --> 00:47:20.167 specifically, and look at the crater and see if there's any differences 00:47:20.510 --> 00:47:25.230 in the surface of Dimorphos versus the depths as you punch in. 00:47:25.230 --> 00:47:26.603 If you make a crater, 00:47:26.603 --> 00:47:30.465 you may get some hints of what the interior of the asteroid is like. 00:47:30.637 --> 00:47:32.954 And so that's something that they're really interested in doing. 00:47:32.954 --> 00:47:36.816 So you may have to wait a little bit longer, maybe a few more years before 00:47:36.816 --> 00:47:40.764 we get that information on on the actual composition of the force. 00:47:40.764 --> 00:47:42.481 I hope that answers the question. 00:47:42.481 --> 00:47:45.999 And that's a that's a great response and really great information 00:47:45.999 --> 00:47:50.634 because it brings up sort of an aspect associated with what you showed 00:47:50.634 --> 00:47:54.496 early in your presentation as well as what you touched upon here. 00:47:54.496 --> 00:47:57.672 And that's international parties participation. 00:47:57.929 --> 00:48:01.791 So is there like any specific group or is it always an 00:48:01.791 --> 00:48:07.198 international participation for missions like this now and in the future? 00:48:07.198 --> 00:48:12.519 Or would that be like Space Force or just NASA or any individual country? 00:48:13.377 --> 00:48:15.437 Yeah, so it's a good question, Paige. 00:48:15.523 --> 00:48:18.441 So this is an international effort you know, defending the planet. 00:48:18.441 --> 00:48:20.758 It's more than just the United States. 00:48:21.702 --> 00:48:24.105 It's Europe, it's it's Asia. 00:48:24.792 --> 00:48:28.053 There are a lot of countries and the United Nations 00:48:28.654 --> 00:48:30.456 is also interested in this. 00:48:30.456 --> 00:48:34.490 So we have several space agencies from around the world that work on this. 00:48:34.833 --> 00:48:37.837 I will say that NASA takes the lead we 00:48:37.837 --> 00:48:42.214 we are the leaders in planetary defense, but we have some key partners. 00:48:42.214 --> 00:48:45.218 Specifically, we have the European Space Agency. 00:48:45.218 --> 00:48:47.535 There are our biggest partner in planetary defense. 00:48:48.393 --> 00:48:50.024 Like I said, they're providing the HERA mission 00:48:51.140 --> 00:48:52.942 and going 00:48:52.942 --> 00:48:56.032 to investigate more folks after the DART impact 00:48:56.718 --> 00:48:59.379 they have some other plans for some of the other things 00:48:59.379 --> 00:49:01.439 they may be doing to help us with planetary defense. 00:49:01.868 --> 00:49:05.386 But we also have some input and help from the Japanese, 00:49:06.073 --> 00:49:08.476 the Russians and a few other countries around the world. 00:49:08.819 --> 00:49:11.823 We're just starting to get really well organized, but 00:49:11.823 --> 00:49:15.085 we're hoping that with the DART mission and the HERA mission 00:49:15.342 --> 00:49:18.003 will have a lot more missions and it will be much more 00:49:18.003 --> 00:49:21.436 an international effort as we move forward to help protect the planet. 00:49:22.380 --> 00:49:23.238 Excellent. 00:49:23.238 --> 00:49:26.671 Well, thank you for the question and thank you for the answer, Paul. 00:49:27.014 --> 00:49:30.190 Now, this question, I think comes from K William 00:49:30.619 --> 00:49:33.794 Harvey Elementary in Montana. 00:49:33.794 --> 00:49:37.656 And they are wondering can you actually land 00:49:37.656 --> 00:49:39.888 a spacecraft on an asteroid? 00:49:40.660 --> 00:49:42.033 That's a great question. 00:49:42.033 --> 00:49:46.582 And yes, we can we've done it in the past. 00:49:47.612 --> 00:49:49.843 So one of the first missions that I was involved with 00:49:49.843 --> 00:49:52.761 was the NEAR Shoemaker mission, 00:49:53.448 --> 00:49:55.937 and that was to asteroid Eros. 00:49:56.366 --> 00:50:01.258 And at the end of the mission, we actually landed the spacecraft on the asteroid. 00:50:01.258 --> 00:50:03.918 You have to do it very carefully because there's not a lot of gravity 00:50:05.034 --> 00:50:08.810 we've also had experience with other asteroids where we've briefly 00:50:08.810 --> 00:50:11.728 touched down, landed, if you will, 00:50:12.329 --> 00:50:14.904 for a brief moment on on the asteroid. 00:50:14.904 --> 00:50:19.281 So this is with the Hayabusa, Hayabusa two and a OSIRIS-Rex missions 00:50:19.281 --> 00:50:24.602 where we wanted to touch down briefly and get a sample from the asteroid 00:50:26.233 --> 00:50:27.606 HERA, 00:50:27.606 --> 00:50:29.751 like I mentioned, the European Space Agency mission, 00:50:30.180 --> 00:50:32.498 one of their plans right at the end of the mission 00:50:32.498 --> 00:50:34.472 when they've done everything else and they're finished 00:50:34.472 --> 00:50:38.248 investigating and studying the asteroids, they're going to land 00:50:38.763 --> 00:50:44.599 and they're going to their plan is to land on either Didymos or Dimorphos. 00:50:44.599 --> 00:50:48.461 But their their plan at the end of the mission, they're going to try and land 00:50:48.461 --> 00:50:50.521 and hopefully we'll learn a lot about how that works. 00:50:50.692 --> 00:50:53.954 Has to be done very carefully because like I said, there's not a lot of gravity 00:50:53.954 --> 00:50:58.846 you come in too fast and you either crash and break up your spacecraft. 00:50:59.790 --> 00:51:00.305 So it's not a 00:51:00.305 --> 00:51:04.510 landing, it's a crash landing, or you come in too fast. 00:51:04.510 --> 00:51:08.801 You survive, but then you bounce off and then can't come back to the asteroid. 00:51:09.059 --> 00:51:10.432 So you have to do it very carefully. 00:51:10.432 --> 00:51:12.320 But it is possible. 00:51:12.320 --> 00:51:12.577 Yeah. 00:51:12.577 --> 00:51:15.238 And that was a very interesting question. 00:51:15.238 --> 00:51:17.469 And, you know, with so many asteroids out there, 00:51:17.469 --> 00:51:21.417 there are so many interesting things to learn about each and every one of them. 00:51:21.417 --> 00:51:23.820 But with millions of them out there, we're probably not going 00:51:23.820 --> 00:51:25.794 to get to learn about each and every one of them. 00:51:25.794 --> 00:51:30.944 But these missions like this are certainly extremely fascinating 00:51:31.201 --> 00:51:36.265 and give us a whole lot of knowledge so here's a question from UTEP. 00:51:36.951 --> 00:51:40.642 They're wondering, are you worried at all about space 00:51:40.642 --> 00:51:45.877 junk or other repercussions of crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid 00:51:46.220 --> 00:51:49.739 and or setting the asteroid sort of off its orbit? 00:51:51.198 --> 00:51:51.713 Right. 00:51:51.713 --> 00:51:55.833 So we get this question a lot with the with the DART impact and what we're doing. 00:51:56.090 --> 00:51:56.862 So one of the reasons 00:51:56.862 --> 00:52:00.896 we picked this particular asteroid is this is a this is a very safe asteroid. 00:52:01.583 --> 00:52:04.329 Anything we do to it it's not going to make it dangerous. 00:52:04.329 --> 00:52:07.590 It's not going to change its orbit all of a sudden to crash into the earth. 00:52:09.049 --> 00:52:11.109 This is the one of the reasons why we picked it. 00:52:11.109 --> 00:52:15.486 And even though the DART spacecraft is moving very fast, 00:52:15.744 --> 00:52:18.833 the amount of energy that it's giving to Dimorphos is still 00:52:19.262 --> 00:52:22.695 relatively small compared to the rest of the mass of the asteroid. 00:52:22.695 --> 00:52:23.983 How big it is. 00:52:23.983 --> 00:52:27.759 So there's nothing bad that is going to happen. 00:52:27.759 --> 00:52:32.565 We're not worried about changing the orbit or creating a whole bunch of debris 00:52:32.565 --> 00:52:35.655 that will eventually come back and give Earth a bad day. 00:52:36.084 --> 00:52:39.088 That's one of the reasons we picked up out of this this particular asteroid. 00:52:39.088 --> 00:52:42.607 So we're very I'm very confident that, you know, we're 00:52:42.607 --> 00:52:46.812 going to do a successful test, but there's no danger to the Earth later on. 00:52:47.413 --> 00:52:48.013 Yeah. 00:52:48.528 --> 00:52:52.562 Again, another great question that that the folks have asked. 00:52:53.249 --> 00:52:57.111 Now, here's one that came in early on, but I want to just 00:52:57.111 --> 00:53:01.402 sort of touch on a couple of things, because this individual from Duxbury 00:53:01.402 --> 00:53:04.749 Senior Center mentioned that, you know, movies show 00:53:04.749 --> 00:53:08.697 a huge number of asteroids in the asteroid belt. 00:53:08.954 --> 00:53:13.417 And so if a craft goes into the asteroid belt area, 00:53:13.675 --> 00:53:17.022 does it have to like dodge asteroids as it moves through? 00:53:17.022 --> 00:53:23.201 Or or could the craft possibly not even see other asteroids or be in danger? 00:53:23.630 --> 00:53:25.690 So can you talk to that a little bit? 00:53:25.690 --> 00:53:26.119 Yeah. 00:53:26.119 --> 00:53:29.381 So I think people have seen lots of movies, 00:53:30.410 --> 00:53:33.328 Star Wars and a few others, where you have 00:53:34.873 --> 00:53:38.392 spaceships flying in around and dodging asteroids and weaving in and out. 00:53:38.392 --> 00:53:40.452 And all these asteroids are really close together. 00:53:40.452 --> 00:53:42.512 And that's not how it is at all. 00:53:42.855 --> 00:53:46.545 You have to keep in mind that asteroids are relatively small 00:53:46.545 --> 00:53:48.433 compared to the vastness of space. 00:53:48.433 --> 00:53:49.892 Space is huge. 00:53:49.892 --> 00:53:51.266 It's big 00:53:51.952 --> 00:53:55.299 for example, if you're in the main asteroid belt, right? 00:53:55.814 --> 00:53:59.247 If you stood on an asteroid in the asteroid belt, 00:53:59.762 --> 00:54:02.852 you would still need binoculars or a small telescope 00:54:02.852 --> 00:54:05.169 to see the next closest asteroid to you. 00:54:05.856 --> 00:54:07.915 It's really, really big. 00:54:07.915 --> 00:54:13.065 And it's not like a packed, dense cloud that you see in the movies. 00:54:13.580 --> 00:54:16.498 When I showed you the animations, I had to make those dots. 00:54:16.755 --> 00:54:20.617 You know, when you saw the animation of the of the inner solar system, 00:54:20.617 --> 00:54:22.505 with all the green and red dots moving around, 00:54:22.505 --> 00:54:26.196 I had to make those dots exceptionally big in order for you to see them. 00:54:26.196 --> 00:54:28.599 If I put it everything that scale, you wouldn't really see too much. 00:54:29.543 --> 00:54:31.774 So it's space is really big. 00:54:32.289 --> 00:54:34.692 Asteroids are small. 00:54:34.692 --> 00:54:37.782 There's not this wall of material that, you know, in the movies, 00:54:37.954 --> 00:54:41.129 we've sent many, many spacecraft through the asteroid belt with no problem. 00:54:41.644 --> 00:54:43.876 So yeah, hope that answers the question. 00:54:45.077 --> 00:54:46.965 Excellent. Thank you, Paul. 00:54:46.965 --> 00:54:48.424 And I know we're close. 00:54:48.424 --> 00:54:50.570 Actually, we are at the bottom of the hour, 00:54:50.570 --> 00:54:53.574 but I'm going to ask one additional question. 00:54:53.574 --> 00:54:57.092 Unless something comes in before we officially bring this to a close 00:54:57.092 --> 00:55:01.040 and hopefully folks can hang on for another couple of quick minutes. 00:55:02.242 --> 00:55:05.589 So Alfred Elementary has actually asked, 00:55:06.104 --> 00:55:09.709 you know, asteroids, could they have actually contributed 00:55:09.709 --> 00:55:14.000 to the formation of glaciers or even bringing water to Earth? 00:55:15.287 --> 00:55:18.634 Yeah, it's a great question. So 00:55:18.634 --> 00:55:20.265 there are some evidence 00:55:20.265 --> 00:55:26.616 to suggest that asteroids and comets, but mainly asteroids may have contributed 00:55:26.616 --> 00:55:32.280 a lot of water and what we call organic molecules to the early earth. 00:55:32.452 --> 00:55:33.825 Right. And they may have helped 00:55:34.769 --> 00:55:37.172 form the oceans that we see today. 00:55:37.430 --> 00:55:41.807 And also, how helped influence how life has evolved on our planet. 00:55:42.150 --> 00:55:45.755 So not only just from the standpoint of, you know, having big asteroids 00:55:45.755 --> 00:55:49.617 come in and wiping out life on Earth, like what happened to the dinosaurs 00:55:49.617 --> 00:55:51.505 and several other species. 00:55:51.505 --> 00:55:52.878 65 million years ago. 00:55:52.878 --> 00:55:55.195 65, 66 million years ago. 00:55:55.195 --> 00:55:57.598 But they could have also brought a lot of useful 00:55:57.598 --> 00:56:01.031 materials, such as water and organic molecules. 00:56:01.460 --> 00:56:03.949 So remember those two asteroids I showed you, 00:56:05.065 --> 00:56:06.696 Ryugu and Bennu, 00:56:06.696 --> 00:56:10.729 the reasons that they were picked for the spacecraft missions of Hayabusa 2 00:56:10.729 --> 00:56:13.819 and OSIRIS-Rex were because those are scientifically 00:56:13.819 --> 00:56:16.909 very interesting from our ground based observations, 00:56:17.080 --> 00:56:19.226 we had hints that they looked like they could be 00:56:21.028 --> 00:56:25.319 contain water, could contain organic material. 00:56:25.405 --> 00:56:29.696 We have meteorites on Earth that have water inside them trapped 00:56:29.696 --> 00:56:34.331 inside the rock, and they're made up of of organic material as well. 00:56:34.846 --> 00:56:37.592 But we didn't know exactly where those type of meteorites came from. 00:56:37.764 --> 00:56:40.167 So we know they came from an asteroid, but we didn't know which 00:56:40.253 --> 00:56:42.312 which ones per se. So 00:56:43.600 --> 00:56:47.033 Ryugu and Bennu are these two, Very dark. 00:56:47.119 --> 00:56:49.264 What we call carbonaceous type asteroids. 00:56:49.693 --> 00:56:53.384 And we now know for certain because we've got samples of Ryugu 00:56:53.384 --> 00:56:59.220 back in the lab right now that there's water on organics on Ryugu, right. 00:56:59.477 --> 00:57:03.597 So Bennu, who we haven't got the samples yet, but the way to bet is 00:57:03.940 --> 00:57:08.489 it looks like that will be also be a water rich organic rich asteroid. 00:57:08.918 --> 00:57:11.407 So, yes, these types of asteroids 00:57:11.922 --> 00:57:16.899 had probably a vital role to play in how the Earth evolved over time. 00:57:17.243 --> 00:57:21.019 Both in terms of the oceans and the water that they brought, but also 00:57:21.019 --> 00:57:24.280 the organic material that helped influence how life formed on our planet. 00:57:25.310 --> 00:57:28.056 And such an important and interesting topic. 00:57:28.056 --> 00:57:31.833 And if you think about it as well, would you also say, Paul, that asteroids 00:57:31.833 --> 00:57:34.322 could have potentially brought water and organics 00:57:34.322 --> 00:57:37.411 to Mars, as well as other worlds in our solar system? 00:57:37.411 --> 00:57:39.214 Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. 00:57:39.214 --> 00:57:41.188 I mean, it's not just they don't just do it to Earth. 00:57:41.188 --> 00:57:42.389 They do it everywhere. Right. 00:57:42.389 --> 00:57:46.852 So keep in mind that the asteroids in the asteroid belt, you have material 00:57:46.852 --> 00:57:48.139 that moves inward, right? 00:57:48.139 --> 00:57:50.027 But you can also get material that moves outward. 00:57:50.027 --> 00:57:51.572 So you can have asteroids. 00:57:51.572 --> 00:57:56.378 We hit we see impact craters, which are resulting from impacts from asteroids. 00:57:56.464 --> 00:57:58.181 All over the solar system. 00:57:58.181 --> 00:58:00.670 So you see those on Mars, you see the 00:58:01.099 --> 00:58:03.502 on the icy satellites of Jupiter. 00:58:03.759 --> 00:58:06.076 Everywhere that we look, that has a solid surface 00:58:06.849 --> 00:58:09.767 we can see evidence of asteroid impacts. 00:58:10.024 --> 00:58:14.830 And we know that Jupiter has been hit because we can see impact flashes 00:58:15.946 --> 00:58:17.148 from when 00:58:18.693 --> 00:58:21.267 comets go into Jupiter as well. 00:58:21.267 --> 00:58:25.215 So the whole aspect of impact, you know, asteroid and comet 00:58:25.215 --> 00:58:27.275 impacts, it happens all over the solar system. 00:58:28.562 --> 00:58:31.738 So very interesting and fascinating. 00:58:31.738 --> 00:58:36.115 And that was actually based on a comment from one of our solar system ambassadors. 00:58:37.402 --> 00:58:42.122 So with that, it is a little bit past half past the top of the hour. 00:58:42.380 --> 00:58:45.984 And so to be sensitive of everyone's 00:58:45.984 --> 00:58:50.447 time, including yours, Paul I'd like to bring this to a close. 00:58:50.447 --> 00:58:54.138 But first of all, I want to say to all our participants out there, 00:58:54.481 --> 00:58:57.914 thank you so much for engaging with us, 00:58:58.171 --> 00:59:02.634 answering the questions in such a thoughtful manner that Paul put out there 00:59:02.634 --> 00:59:06.754 for you all to give some input on for your valuable questions. 00:59:07.355 --> 00:59:08.385 And for your time. 00:59:08.385 --> 00:59:11.045 We so very much appreciate you joining us. 00:59:11.303 --> 00:59:15.937 And I also want to give special thanks to Rossina, Kim, and Suzanne, 00:59:15.937 --> 00:59:19.713 who have been helping and monitoring in the chat and the Q&A area. 00:59:20.142 --> 00:59:22.889 But perhaps most importantly, I want to thank you, Paul. 00:59:22.975 --> 00:59:26.837 Thank you for sharing again the knowledge, the excitement 00:59:27.008 --> 00:59:29.154 and the passion you have for this work. 00:59:29.411 --> 00:59:30.699 We are so excited 00:59:30.699 --> 00:59:34.732 and now prepared to think about the DART mission, what will happen. 00:59:34.732 --> 00:59:36.106 And we sure hope that folks 00:59:36.106 --> 00:59:42.113 join us for the, for our webinar in October on Post-Impact 00:59:42.371 --> 00:59:46.061 and any lessons that get learned that you'll be able to share with that 00:59:47.005 --> 00:59:49.322 so I'll give the last word to you, 00:59:49.322 --> 00:59:52.412 Paul, before we officially then bring this to a close. 00:59:52.412 --> 00:59:53.785 Any last remarks? Paul. 00:59:55.502 --> 00:59:57.476 I'm just going to say thanks, everybody, for joining. 00:59:57.476 --> 01:00:00.308 This is a really exciting time. 01:00:00.308 --> 01:00:04.084 This is humanity's first planetary defense test mission. 01:00:04.857 --> 01:00:08.118 It's going to be a great great event, so please stay tuned. 01:00:08.976 --> 01:00:11.379 September 26, seven, 14 p.m. 01:00:11.379 --> 01:00:12.752 Eastern Daylight Time. 01:00:12.752 --> 01:00:17.044 Watch all the social media from NASA, YouTube and also the NASA TV. 01:00:17.044 --> 01:00:18.073 It's going to be a great event. 01:00:18.073 --> 01:00:21.421 I'll be there actually at the Applied Physics Laboratory 01:00:21.592 --> 01:00:25.197 near their mission control and celebrating and watching what happens. 01:00:25.197 --> 01:00:27.772 So feel free to join us and cheer on DART. 01:00:28.201 --> 01:00:30.089 It's going to be a great day. Thank you very much.