DART just went out with a bang.
The surface of Dimorphos moments before the DART spacecraft slammed into it.A NASA spacecraft slammed into the surface of a distant asteroid at 7:14PM ET on Monday night, the climax of the agency’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test .
Telescopes around the world are now turning their attention to the scene of the collision. They’ll be watching to see how much the impact changed the movement of Dimorphos. The crash is part of the first practical planetary defense experiment — a trial to see if humanity might one day be able to redirect the path of an asteroid headed toward our planet.
To be clear, neither Dimorphos nor Didymos, pose any danger to Earth. No known asteroids pose a significant and immediate threat to our planet. But NASA is playing a long game. Someday in the future, if an asteroid is spotted on a dangerous path, the agency wants us to have options that could let us avert catastrophe.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Direct impact: NASA's DART spacecraft successfully slams into asteroidThe DART mission is humanity's first-ever attempt to change the motion of an asteroid in space by intentionally crashing a spacecraft into it.
Read more »
DART NASA: Spacecraft will slam into an asteroid's moon MondayThe event will be the agency's first full-scale demonstration of deflection technology that can protect the planet.
Read more »
NASA Makes History Again by Crashing DART Spacecraft Into an AsteroidNASA successfully slammed its DART spacecraft into an asteroid in a historic, first-of-its-kind test:
Read more »
DART NASA: Spacecraft successfully slams into an asteroidThe impact occurred at 7:15 p.m. ET greeted by cheers from the mission team in Laurel, Maryland. The DART mission, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, launched 10 months ago.
Read more »