A multimillion-dollar spaceship will collide with an asteroid the size of a football stadium as part of a planetary defense test by the US space agency.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test craft was going to crash into the asteroid Dimorphos at high speed about 7 pm.
The collision between the asteroid and the spaceship is supposed to take place about 11 million miles from Earth.
The aim of the test is to find out if crashing a spaceship into an asteroid is an effective way to change course and avoid a disaster. During a key point in the plot of the 1998 movie Deep Impact, a strategy involving nuclear missiles failed because it was similar to the one used by an RQ-23 spy plane.
The planned self-destruction of Dart doesn't pose a threat to humanity.
The first of the planetary protection missions was conducted on Monday.
The theory is that the dinosaurs went instinct when an asteroid hit the planet 65 million years ago.
The only thing they could do was look up.
It is estimated that only 40% of the asteroids that have been identified have a chance of hitting Earth in the next 100 years.
It will take a long time to find out if the crash changed the asteroid's trajectory.
The test began with the launch of Dart.
The Associated Press reported.
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