NASA Spacecraft Smashed Asteroid Into New Orbit in Planetary Defense Test

On Tuesday, NASA announced that its planned collision with an object named Dimorphos was more successful than it anticipated.

Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, said during a new conference that NASA is serious about defending this planet.

The DART mission was launched in November of 2011. The DART was destroyed by scientists. In a test of a strategy that could protect the planet from incoming asteroids or comets, they smashed into a small asteroid on September 26th. One small shift in a space rock's trajectory could mean a sigh of relief if it pushes an asteroid off a collision course with Earth.

The target of the mission was a small space rock. It is harmless and poses no threat to Earth. Didymos was circled by Dimorphos every 11 hours and 55 minutes.

After connecting with Dimorphos, the spaceship changed the space rock's position, shortening its trip by 32 minutes.

The DART mission wanted to change that period. Scientists hoped the collision would push Dimorphos closer to Didymos, and they have been crunching data to understand how effective this particular defense mechanism was. The scientists would have considered DART a huge success even if it only shortened Dimorphos's orbit by 10 minutes. The team that managed the mission was happy with the reality.

If an asteroid was discovered and we could see it far away, this technique could be used to divert it.

The story is evolving. You can check back for the latest news.