NASA made history at 7.14pm EDT after slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid.
This is the first time any life on Earth has ever altered the course of an asteroid.
NASA‘s ‘Dart’ or Double Asteroid Redirection Test craft hit into the side of the asteroid Dimorphos at 14,400 miles per hour. The point of the mission was to test if the impact of the spacecraft could alter the course of the asteroid.
The administration hopes that one day, if needed, asteroids could be diverted from potentially hitting Earth by ‘Dart’ saving billions if not all life on earth.
Timelapse video of NASA's DART spacecraft impacting an asteroid for science. pic.twitter.com/6h88wcGjYc
— Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight) September 26, 2022
Dimorphos did not risk life to our planet and will not pose a risk now it has been destroyed which is why NASA specifically choose that asteroid to test out their new “kinetic impactor” with the DART.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said:
“It’s been a successful completion of the first part of the world’s first planetary defense test,”
“It’s going to teach us one day how to protect our own planet from an incoming asteroid.”
Incredible!
