Asteroid’s path altered in NASA’s first test of planetary defense system

Photo caption: The last image to contain a complete view of asteroid Didymos (top left) and its moonlet, Dimorphos, about 2.5 minutes before the impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft, taken by the on board DRACO imager from a distance of 920 kilometers, and released September 26, 2022. Photo credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Handout via REUTERS. Article by Steve Gorman. Reuters – October 11, 2022.

Oct 11 (Reuters) – The spacecraft that NASA deliberately crashed into an asteroid last month succeeded in nudging the rocky moonlet out of its natural orbit – the first time humanity has altered the motion of a celestial body – NASA officials announced on Tuesday. The $330 million proof-of-concept mission, which was seven years in development, also marked the world’s first test of a planetary defense system designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth. […]

Click here to view original web page at www.reuters.com