Target: Didymoon

The target for the international Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment mission, of which ESA’s Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) is a part. In 2020 AIM will head to the paired Didymos asteroids, which will come a comparatively close 11 million km to Earth in 2022. The 800 m-diameter main body is orbited by a 170 m moon, informally called ‘Didymoon’, which will be surveyed in detail by AIM. In late 2022 the NASA-led Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) probe will crash straight into the asteroid moon at about 6 km/s.