didymos and dimorphos (10. 170)

Via Slashdot, we transported to yet another existential—though potentially avoidable—threat in the demonstration project DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), a probe that will collide with the smaller (often referred to as Didymoon) of the binary pair in hopes of then ricocheting off the larger—Δίμορφος, having two forms in reference to the target of this experiment and the only celestial body in cosmic history having been significantly altered by human intervention. Though this billiard ball scenario seems less than ideally risk-free—posing no threat to Earth if left be, plans are in place to monitor the changes and adjust trajectory if deemed necessary and deflect an approaching apocalypse like that that befell the dinosaurs.