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NASA deliberately crashed a small, fast-moving spacecraft into an asteroid 7 million miles away Monday evening in hope of changing its orbit – the first test of a planetary defense system to deflect asteroids and other objects that could threaten Earth.
The 1,260-pound craft is called DART, an acronym for Double Asteroid Redirection Test. It’s a vending- machine-sized vehicle with solar panels, traveling at 14,760 mph and carrying a single camera for navigation and targeting. The impact, which destroyed the spacecraft, took place at 7:14 p.m. Monday, EDT.
DART targeted part of what’s called a binary asteroid system, or two asteroids that revolve around each other. It will take a few days to determine if the spacecraft was able to change the orbit of the asteroids.
Though neither were a threat, they were chosen because they pass relatively close to Earth, NASA says.
