First Ever Planetary Defense Mission

Guest: Andy Rivkin, DART Investigation Team Lead Planetary Astronomer, Johns Hopkins University One of the leading explanations for why dinosaurs went extinct is that a giant asteroid smashed into Earth 65 million years ago. We’re lucky another one hasn’t hit us since –otherwise we might have to send Bruce Willis to space with a nuclear bomb on his back to blow up the asteroid while the world cheers him on -like he did in the movie Armageddon. That’s Hollywood, but an asteroid collision really is a threat to Earth –enough so that NASA has a special mission to prepare for it. It’s called, “DART” and it’s entering a crucial phase.