NASA demonstrates humanity may be able to stop an Earth-bound asteroid

A NASA spacecraft that smashed into an asteroid on purpose didn’t just knock one rock off its course. It also nudged the orbit of the entire asteroid system it belongs to, a new study shows.

Researchers found that the impact from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission altered the path of the asteroid pair Didymos and Dimorphos around the sun. The discovery further confirms the space agency’s asteroid target practice as a valid planetary defense technique for moving a hazardous object off a collision course, should one ever barrel toward Earth in the future.

When the DART spacecraft deliberately crashed into Dimorphos in September 2022, astronomers quickly announced the success of the $330 million mission’s primary goal. The crash changed the orbit of the 560-foot-wide rock, which orbits Didymos like a small moon. Dimorphos now circles its larger partner 33 minutes faster than it did before the strike.

Read more at Mashable