NASA is very happy with the way it hit the asteroid. CNN reported that the agency was pleasantly surprised by how much material was released when it smashed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos.
The collision was able to change Dimorphos' trajectory and also release a lot of dust and loose rock.
Two million pounds of debris was displaced by DART.
NASA says the pandemonium it caused was a resounding success.
"What we can learn from the DART mission is all part of a NASA's overarching work to understand asteroids and other small bodies in our Solar System," said Tom Statler, program scientist for DART at NASA.
He said that hitting the asteroid was just the beginning. We use the observations to study what these bodies are made of and how they were formed, as well as how to defend our planet should there ever be an asteroid heading our way.
The amount of debris created by the collision was captured by both ground and space based telescopes.
The asteroid's trajectory was changed because of loosened debris. The trajectory of Diomorphos would have changed less if it had just absorbed the impact.
"Momentum transfer is one of the most important things we can measure, because it is information we need to develop an impactor mission to divert a threating asteroid," said Andy Cheng, DART investigation team lead.
The more data we have the better picture we can get of the violent event.
The material was released after the asteroid.
There are amazing views of NASA's A asteroid collision.
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