The mission culminates a 10-month-long journey for DART, which cost $325 million. The asteroid orbits a larger one named Didymos, and the two were chosen because they don't pose any threat to Earth.
The Ideal Target for DART's Mission
DART's objective is the paired space rock framework Didymos, and that signifies "twin" in Greek (and makes sense of "twofold" in the mission's name). Didymos is the ideal possibility for humanity's most memorable planetary guard explore, despite the fact that it isn't on a way to slam into Earth and hence represents no genuine danger to the planet. The framework is made out of two space rocks: the bigger space rock Didymos (breadth: 780 meters, 0.48 miles), and the more modest moonlet space rock, Dimorphos (distance across: 160 meters, 525 feet), which circles the bigger space rock. At present, the orbital time of Dimorphos around Didymos is 11 hours and 55 minutes, and the detachment between the focuses of the two space rocks is 1.18 kilometers (0.73 miles). The DART shuttle will affect Dimorphos almost head-on, shortening the time it takes the little space rock moonlet to circle Didymos by a few minutes.
