NASA Says Its Test of Asteroid Deflection Tech Was Wildly Successful

NASA smashed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into an asteroid's moonlet.

NASA says it successfully changed the space rock's trajectory in order to demonstrate that humans could save themselves from a catastrophic asteroid collision.

NASA boss Bill Nelson said that all of them have a responsibility to protect the planet. It's the only one we have.

He said that the mission shows that NASA is prepared for anything. NASA has shown us that we are serious about protecting the planet.

Orbital Adjustment

The numbers look promising according to NASA. The impact seems to have changed the time it takes for Dimorphos to circle Didymos.

The initial goal was to change its trajectory by 10 minutes.

The director of NASA's Planetary Science Division said that for the first time in history, humans have changed the path of a planetary object.

The event was captured by a number of ground and space based telescopes.

Anchor Points

NASA warned that we still have a lot to learn about asteroid threats to Earth.

Tom Statler, DART program scientist at NASA, said "We should not be too eager to say that one test on one asteroid tells us exactly how every other asteroid would behave."

"We can use this test as an anchor point for our physics calculations in our simulations that show how different kinds of impacts in different situations should behave," he said.

The DART mission was successful in changing the motion of an asteroid.

DART: The Devastation from NASA's A asteroid collision looks unbelievable.