NASA’s science fiction experiment succeeds: the Dart probe hits the asteroid

NASA’s DART spacecraft successfully hit the asteroid Dimorphos, completing the first test of what can be considered a future planetary defense plan. It is the first attempt to alter the motion of an asteroid. The NASA live streaming showed the images taken by the video camera mounted on board the DART probe. The mission was designed to determine if a spacecraft is capable of changing the trajectory of an asteroid through sheer kinetic force, pushing it off course just enough to keep it off our planet, should it be needed. To have the verification of the deviation and therefore the complete success of the mission it will be necessary to wait for further observations that will be available within the next 30 days. But NASA is confident, based on its calculations, that it has altered the direction of the struck asteroid.