Nasa has successfully diverted an asteroid in space in a test to see if it could save the world from an extra-terrestrial impact. The space agency attempted the first test ever planetary defence test two weeks ago to see if a future threat from space could be nudged out of Earth’s way.
A spacecraft ploughed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away and succeeded in shifting its orbit, Nasa said today, Tuesday, October 11. "This mission shows that Nasa is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,” Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said during a briefing at their headquarters in Washington. He said it showed Nasa "was serious as a defender of this planet".
The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, hurling debris into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble stretching several thousand miles.
