NASA satellite’s collision with asteroid sent boulders into space

An illustration depicts NASA's DART satellite about to collide with the Dimorphos asteroid [Steve Gribben for Johns Hopkins APL/NASA via AP Photo]

The United States space agency says dozens of rock fragments were sent into space when it conducted a successful effort in 2022 to knock an asteroid off its path by making a satellite collide with it.

In a press release on Thursday, NASA said images captured by the Hubble space telescope show a “swarm of boulders” released after the collision, which was meant to test a method of planetary defence.