Watch the moment NASA’s DART spacecraft crashed into an asteroid

A small camera mounted on DART was used to keep an eye on the progress of the asteroid. The team cheered as Dimorphos got closer and closer.

Elena Adams said the strike was a bull's-eye. The exact moment DART hit Dimorphos can be seen on the livestream. Tom Statler, DART's program scientist, described the collision as a golf cart travelling at 15,000 miles an hour smashing into the side of a football stadium. The mission shows a way to protect ourselves from asteroids. The project shows NASA's ability to stop asteroids like Dimorphos from crashing into Earth.

It is believed that the crash could have shortened Dimorphos's flight time by 10 minutes. Bill Nelson is the administrator of NASA. The next step is to study the asteroid using telescopes on Earth to confirm that the impact changed the asteroid's position.