DART spacecraft strikes asteroid target at 14,000mph

The culmination of 10 months flying in space, and part of NASA’s overall Planetary Defense strategy, DART demonstrated the viability of protecting our planet from an Earth-bound asteroid or comet, should one be discovered.

Mission control at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, announced the successful impact yesterday at 1914 EDT. 

“At its core, DART represents an unprecedented success for planetary defence, but it is also a mission of unity with a real benefit for all humanity,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “As NASA studies the cosmos and our home planet, we’re also working to protect that home, and this international collaboration turned science fiction into science fact, demonstrating one way to protect Earth.”

DART targeted the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, a small body 160m in diameter that orbits a larger, 780m asteroid called Didymos. Neither asteroid poses a threat to Earth, NASA said.

The investigation team will now observe Dimorphos using ground-based telescopes to confirm that DART’s impact altered the asteroid’s orbit around Didymos, which is one of the primary purposes of the full-scale test. Researchers expect the impact to shorten Dimorphos’ orbit by about one per cent, or roughly 10 minutes.