After reaching outer space, DART will separate from Falcon 9 and travel towards the binary Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid which, much like the Earth, also revolves around the Sun. It is expected that DART will collide with the smaller Dimorphos asteroid at a speed of 24,000 kilometers per hour in the fall of 2022. NASA notes that specialists have a difficult task. "The asteroid we are trying to hit is about the size of a football stadium. And we’re going to try and hit it with something the size of a refrigerator," Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division Lori Glaze said earlier.
As a result of the collision, Dimorphos’ orbit which revolves around its larger 760-meter-long companion Didymos should change by "a fraction of a percent." Scientists think that this will be enough for them to detect the deviation using ground-based telescopes. The goal of the experiment is to work out a methodology which in the future could help alter the trajectory of potentially dangerous asteroids.