NASA successfully crashes a spacecraft into an asteroid

Monday night at 7:14, NASA succeeded in crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid. Although it’s been done before in the movies, this is the first time it’s ever happened in real life. The double asteroid redirection test (DART) slammed into Die Morphos, a small asteroid, in an attempt to change the asteroid’s orbit. Die Morphos isn’t any risk to Earth, but the test shows how we might protect the planet from a potential asteroid threat in the future. NASA will now monitor the asteroid to determine whether the impact successfully changed its orbit.

Advertisement