In the first-of-its kind, save-the-world experiment, NASA is about to clobber a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away.Video above: NASA spacecraft on track to slam asteroidA spacecraft named Dart will zero in on the asteroid Monday, intent on slamming it head-on at 14,000 mph. The impact should be just enough to nudge the asteroid into a slightly tighter orbit around its companion space rock 바카라 게임 웹사이트� demonstrating that if a killer asteroid ever heads our way, we바카라 게임 웹사이트�d stand a fighting chance of diverting it.바카라 게임 웹사이트�This is stuff of science-fiction books and really corny episodes of 바카라 게임 웹사이트�StarTrek바카라 게임 웹사이트� from when I was a kid, and now it's real,바카라 게임 웹사이트� NASA program scientist Tom Statler said Thursday.Cameras and telescopes will watch the crash, but it will take days or even weeks to find out if it actually changed the orbit.The $325 million planetary defense test began with Dart바카라 게임 웹사이트�s launch last fall.Asteroid target The asteroid with the bull바카라 게임 웹사이트�s-eye on it is Dimorphos, about 7 million miles from Earth. It is actually the puny sidekick of a 2,500-foot asteroid named Didymos, Greek for twin. Discovered in 1996, Didymos is spinning so fast that scientists believe it flung off material that eventually formed a moonlet. Dimorphos 바카라 게임 웹사이트� roughly 525 feet across 바카라 게임 웹사이트� orbits its parent body at a distance of less than a mile.바카라 게임 웹사이트�This really is about asteroid deflection, not disruption," said Nancy Chabot, a planetary scientist and mission team leader at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, which is managing the effort. "This isn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t going to blow up the asteroid. It isn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t going to put it into lots of pieces.바카라 게임 웹사이트� Rather, the impact will dig out a crater tens of yards in size and hurl some 2 million pounds of rocks and dirt into space.NASA insists there바카라 게임 웹사이트�s a zero chance either asteroid will threaten Earth 바카라 게임 웹사이트� now or in the future. That바카라 게임 웹사이트�s why the pair was picked.Video below: NASA prepares for Monday asteroid strikeDart, the impactor The Johns Hopkins lab took a minimalist approach in developing Dart 바카라 게임 웹사이트� short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test 바카라 게임 웹사이트� given that it바카라 게임 웹사이트�s essentially a battering ram and faces sure destruction. It has a single instrument: a camera used for navigating, targeting and chronicling the final action. Believed to be essentially a rubble pile, Dimorphos will emerge as a point of light an hour before impact, looming larger and larger in the camera images beamed back to Earth. Managers are confident Dart won바카라 게임 웹사이트�t smash into the larger Didymos by mistake. The spacecraft바카라 게임 웹사이트�s navigation is designed to distinguish between the two asteroids and, in the final 50 minutes, target the smaller one.The size of a small vending machine at 1,260 pounds, the spacecraft will slam into roughly 11 billion pounds of asteroid. 바카라 게임 웹사이트�Sometimes we describe it as running a golf cart into a Great Pyramid,바카라 게임 웹사이트� said Chabot.Unless Dart misses 바카라 게임 웹사이트� NASA puts the odds of that happening at less than 10% 바카라 게임 웹사이트� it will be the end of the road for Dart. If it goes screaming past both space rocks, it will encounter them again in a couple years for Take 2.Saving Earth Little Dimorphos completes a lap around big Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes. The impact by Dart should shave about 10 minutes off that. Although the strike itself should be immediately apparent, it could take a few weeks or more to verify the moonlet바카라 게임 웹사이트�s tweaked orbit. Cameras on Dart and a mini tagalong satellite will capture the collision up close. Telescopes on all seven continents, along with the Hubble and Webb space telescopes and NASA바카라 게임 웹사이트�s asteroid-hunting Lucy spacecraft, may see a bright flash as Dart smacks Dimorphos and sends streams of rock and dirt cascading into space. The observatories will track the pair of asteroids as they circle the sun, to see if Dart altered Dimorphos바카라 게임 웹사이트� orbit. In 2024, a European spacecraft named Hera will retrace Dart바카라 게임 웹사이트�s journey to measure the impact results.Although the intended nudge should change the moonlet바카라 게임 웹사이트�s position only slightly, that will add up to a major shift over time, according to Chabot. "So if you were going to do this for planetary defense, you would do it five, 10, 15, 20 years in advance in order for this technique to work,바카라 게임 웹사이트� she said. Even if Dart misses, the experiment still will provide valuable insight, said NASA program executive Andrea Riley. 바카라 게임 웹사이트�This is why we test. We want to do it now rather than when there바카라 게임 웹사이트�s an actual need,바카라 게임 웹사이트� she said.Asteroid missions galore Planet Earth is on an asteroid-chasing roll. NASA has close to a pound of rubble collected from asteroid Bennu headed to Earth. The stash should arrive next September. Japan was the first to retrieve asteroid samples, accomplishing the feat twice. China hopes to follow suit with a mission launching in 2025. NASA바카라 게임 웹사이트�s Lucy spacecraft, meanwhile, is headed to asteroids near Jupiter, after launching last year. Another spacecraft, Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, is loaded into NASA바카라 게임 웹사이트�s new moon rocket awaiting liftoff; it will use a solar sail to fly past a space rock that바카라 게임 웹사이트�s less than 60 feet next year. In the next few years, NASA also plans to launch a census-taking telescope to identify hard-to-find asteroids that could pose risks. One asteroid mission is grounded while an independent review board weighs its future. NASA바카라 게임 웹사이트�s Psyche spacecraft should have launched this year to a metal-rich asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, but the team couldn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t test the flight software in time.Hollywood's take Hollywood has churned out dozens of killer-space-rock movies over the decades, including 1998바카라 게임 웹사이트�s 바카라 게임 웹사이트�Armageddon바카라 게임 웹사이트� which brought Bruce Willis to Cape Canaveral for filming, and last year's 바카라 게임 웹사이트�Don바카라 게임 웹사이트�t Look Up바카라 게임 웹사이트� with Leonardo DiCaprio leading an all-star cast. NASA바카라 게임 웹사이트�s planetary defense officer, Lindley Johnson, figures he바카라 게임 웹사이트�s seen them all since 1979바카라 게임 웹사이트�s 바카라 게임 웹사이트�Meteor,바카라 게임 웹사이트� his personal favorite 바카라 게임 웹사이트�since Sean Connery played me.바카라 게임 웹사이트� While some of the sci-fi films are more accurate than others, he noted, entertainment always wins out. The good news is that the coast seems clear for the next century, with no known threats. Otherwise, 바카라 게임 웹사이트�it would be like the movies, right?바카라 게임 웹사이트� said NASA바카라 게임 웹사이트�s science mission chief Thomas Zurbuchen. What바카라 게임 웹사이트�s worrisome, though, are the unknown threats. Fewer than half of the 460-foot objects have been confirmed, with millions of smaller but still-dangerous objects zooming around. 바카라 게임 웹사이트�These threats are real, and what makes this time special, is we can do something about it,바카라 게임 웹사이트� Zurbuchen said. Not by blowing up an asteroid as Willis바카라 게임 웹사이트� character did 바카라 게임 웹사이트� that would be a last, last-minute resort 바카라 게임 웹사이트� or by begging government leaders to take action as DiCaprio바카라 게임 웹사이트�s character did in vain. If time allows, the best tactic could be to nudge the menacing asteroid out of our way, like Dart.