NASA's DART Spacecraft Hits Asteroid As Part of Planetary Defense Test Mission

CC0 / / Schematic of the DART mission shows the impact on the moonlet of asteroid (65803) Didymos
Schematic of the DART mission shows the impact on the moonlet of asteroid (65803) Didymos - Sputnik International, 1920, 27.09.2022
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft hit a small asteroid as part of a historic planetary defense test mission, according to a live broadcast of the event.
The planetary defense test mission that was completed on Monday seeks to examine whether kinetic energy can be used to change the orbits of celestial bodies to deflect them from crashing into the earth in the future.
No information was immediately available about whether the spacecraft changed the trajectory of the asteroid.
The DART spacecraft was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The asteroid is estimated to be 160 meters in diameter and about 7 million miles from the earth and poses no threat to it.
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