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APL scientists and engineers will develop an infrared imaging instrument for Canada’s first lunar rover. Called LAFORGE, the instrument will be the first to fly to the lunar surface with the capability of measuring the low temperatures found in some shadowed regions.

The editors of Popular Science magazine have named NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) one of the top technology innovations of 2022. Designed, built and managed by Johns Hopkins APL, DART changed the orbit of a celestial body for the first time in human history, demonstrating the capability to defend the Earth from a potential future impact.

Johns Hopkins APL scientists are part of an international team that used NASA’s Webb Telescope to reveal the first comprehensive list of molecular ingredients in the atmosphere of a planet roughly 700 light-years away.

Analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team shows the spacecraft’s kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit. This marks humanity’s first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology.

After 10 months of flying in space, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration – successfully impacted its asteroid target on Monday, the agency’s first attempt to move an asteroid in space. Mission control at the Johns Hopkins APL announced the successful impact at 7:14 p.m. EDT.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is set to make history next Monday as the world’s first planetary defense test, and the spacecraft’s own “mini-photographer” LICIACube (short for Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging Asteroids) is warming up to capture the event.

After capturing images of one of the brightest stars in Earth’s night sky, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft turned its camera toward another eye-catching spectacle: Jupiter and its four largest moons.

The small satellite companion aboard NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) has successfully separated from the main spacecraft, popping out of its spring-loaded box to capture valuable information about DART’s impact into an asteroid that will inform future planetary defense efforts.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft recently got its first look at Didymos, the double-asteroid system that includes its target, Dimorphos.

Using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team confirmed the orbit of Dimorphos around its parent asteroid, Didymos, and its expected location when the DART spacecraft impacts the moonlet next month.