A Nasa spacecraft will be deliberately crashed into an asteroid this morning.

It’s part of Nasa’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) to test whether deflecting a space rock could one day save Earth from a catastrophic impact.

The impact is scheduled to take place at 9.14am (AEST), with live footage from the spacecraft streaming from 7.30am.

• Watch the live stream from the spacecraft HERE

Planetary astronomer and mission co-investigator at the University of Canterbury, Dr Michele Bannister, says the impact poses “no risk at all” to Earth.

“This is a harmless asteroid and the impact we’re doing is only changing the orbit of the moon of the asteroid very, very slightly, by about one millimetre a second,” she told Ross and Russel.

Press PLAY below to hear more about the mission

Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben