NASA’s asteroid-deflecting DART spacecraft successfully struck a football stadium-sized asteroid in a historic test of the world’s first planetary defense system, designed to prevent a cosmic doomsday collision with Earth.
“IMPACT SUCCESS!” NASA declared on Twitter after the spacecraft, flying at 14,000 miles per hour, struck “Dimorphos” on Monday at 7:14 p.m. ET.
The U.S. space agency live-streamed the spacecraft’s progress and ultimate impact, allowing a global audience to watch via the DART Mission’s DRACO camera as the vending machine-sized spacecraft collided with the football stadium-sized asteroid Dimorphos.
The asteroid, currently around 6.8 million miles away, poses no threat to Earth, according to NASA….