NASA’s DART Mission Successfully Collides with Asteroid, Proving Planetary Defense Feasibility
In a groundbreaking achievement for planetary defense, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission has successfully smashed its satellite into a distant asteroid, marking the first-ever demonstration of humanity’s ability to alter the trajectory of a celestial object. This milestone event took place recently when NASA targeted a small, pyramid-sized asteroid, a technique that could safeguard Earth from potentially hazardous space objects in the future. The DART spacecraft deliberately collided with the asteroid known as Dimorphos, the smaller companion in a binary asteroid system, traveling at a speed fast enough to shift its orbit through kinetic impact. This monumental feat