NASA's DART mission successfully crashes spacecraft into asteroid

NASA's DART spacecraft slammed into an asteroid as part of a historic test of planetary defense. Data will be used to assess the effectiveness of asteroid deflection.

It was a cosmic smash-up watched around the world.

A NASA spacecraft intentionally slammed into an asteroid Monday in a historic test of humanity's ability to protect Earth from a potentially catastrophic collision with a space rock.

The agency's DART probe, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, carried out the first-of-its-kind maneuver on a small and harmless space rock known as Dimorphos, which is about 6.8 million miles from Earth.

Watch: NASA’s DART spacecraft crashes into asteroidSept. 27, 202201:36The $325 million mission was designed to see whether "nudging" an asteroid can alter its trajectory, providing scientists with a valuable real-world test of planetary defense technologies.

The DART spacecraft, which is about the size of a vending machine, crashed into Dimorphos at 7:14 p.m. ET, flying head-on into the space rock at 14,000 mph.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-dart-asteroid-crash-spacecraft-mission-rcna49413

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