Thanks to some stunning Hubble Space Telescope observations, scientists continue to be surprised by NASA's DART mission – this time in the form of a swarm of boulders that appears to have been knocked loose from the targeted asteroid upon impact.
In September of last year, NASA launched a mission that, on its surface, might appear to contradict everything we know about space exploration. The agency launched a spacecraft directly into an asteroid. It did not survive. But this metal adventurer, named DART, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, had a very important purpose: It was NASA's first step in developing an ambitious planetary defense system.
