NASA says the test has shown it is possible to deflect an asteroid if one were threatening Earth — but only if it is spotted in time.
NASA tested out a new method for defending the planet from incoming objects by crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid. Recently, further analysis of data from the impact has shown more about what occurred during and after the impact, and how effective it was at changing the orbit of the asteroid.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of images showing the aftermath of the impact, which have been put together into a video showing the bright flash of the impact and the emerging plume of material sent up from the asteroid:
The data from Hubble is also shown in the form of three images. The first shows the scene around two hours after impact, with a cone of material called ejecta made up of around 1,000 tons of dust.
