Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network based in Goleta plays role in NASA’s DART Mission success

GOLETA, Calif. – The Central Coast has plenty to celebrate when it comes to NASA'S Double Asteroid Redirection Test known as DART.

NASA launched the first planetary defense test mission from Vandenbert Space Force Base and Las Cumbres Observatory in Goleta is part of the DART project.

LCO is subcontracted to conduct observations under the direction of Dr. Tim Lister who heads up the Near-Earth Objects study.

The scientist has been sharing in the excitement.

"That was incredibly exciting watching the images coming in from the spacecraft and watching the asteroid getting bigger and bigger in the field of view, and at the same time we were busy taking observations with out telescopes in South Africa, " said Lister.

When asked to explain in simple terms he described it like " galactic billiards."

"The Dart mission is a planetary defense test mission, we are trying to protect the planet from asteroid impacts and what we have done is we have deliberately crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid to try and bump it off course."

The asteroid called Dimorphos was never a threat to earth.

"We have crashed into the asteroid at 14 thousand miles an hour and we have slowed it down in its orbit by about 32 minutes, "said Lister, "and this will tell us how much push we need to give to one of these asteroids if we find one in the future that might be trying to collide with the earth."

In 2013 a small asteroid that exploded over a city in Russia did some damage and injured people nearby.

"An asteroid the size of Dimorphos would be something like 70 million tons of TNT if it were to hit the earth," said Lister.

Lister said that by giving a kinetic push to the asteroid, it will not disrupt it and turn it into debris.

Now Lister and all the investigation teams are busy analyzing data from telescopes such as Las Cumbres and looking at the images from the spacecraft.

They hope this makes the solar system exciting for students who want to get involved and make contributions to science.

NASA has a planetary defense coordination offices in Arizona and Hawaii looking for asteroids on clear nights by using telescopes.

Lister said they have only found about 40% of them, so there is more work to be done.

LCO director of development Dr. Sandy Seale said Las Cumbres Observatory is the only global network of telescopes in the world.

LCO has a ring of telescopes in the Northern and Southern hemisphere.

"So we are able to observe any phenomenon in the sky as it changes," said Seale.

The telescopes hand off information to each other.

"The headquarters is based here in Goleta, this is actually a telescope factory, "said Seale.

Seale and Lister joined dozens of locals at Astronomy on Tap on Wednesday night.

LCO hosted the free short astronomy presentation at M. Special Brewing Company on State Street in Santa Barbara.

This was the second Astronomy on Tap since the pandemic began and they say more will follow.

For more information visit lco.global/aot/october-12-2022/.

And for more on the DART mission visit lco.global.