NASA’s DART asteroid smash shows we could deflect a future threat

NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission did more than alter the motion of a small asteroid. New research shows the spacecraft's deliberate collision with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in September 2022 also slightly changed the path of the entire asteroid system around the Sun. The finding provides strong evidence that a kinetic impactor could be used as a planetary defense method to redirect a potentially hazardous near-Earth object.

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