NASA just smashed a spaceship into an asteroid on purpose. Here are 13 facts about the mission and why it may just help save humanity one day.

Marianne GuenotSep 27, 2022, 21:36 IST

Illustration of DART approaching Dimorphos.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, in a first-of-its-kind experiment in planetary defense.
The space agency wants to see whether it's a viable method for deflecting rocks that could threaten Earth.

NASA made history on Monday when it purposefully crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid about 6.8 million miles away as part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.

Scientists hope the mission will give us information about whether we can use spacecraft to deflect asteroids that would otherwise impact Earth.

Though there is no immediate danger, experts say that we would be poorly prepared if a large asteroid were heading toward Earth today.

Here is how this experiment works, in 13 facts, photos, and graphs.

NASA recorded the impact with a camera on the spacecraft.

NASA's DART mission spacecraft captured its last moments using an onboard camera. The movie is sped up as each frame was taken at a second interval.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

It switched to a red kill screen at the moment of impact.

Screenshots of the footage from DART's camera as the spacecraft approached, then smashed into the rock, on September 26, 2022.NASA Live

The crash sent up debris into the atmosphere.

This is the first practical test of how we might defend the planet from an asteroid.

An artist's depiction of an asteroid breaking apart.Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout

Simulations have suggested we're not yet ready to quickly deflect an asteroid.

An artist's illustration of asteroids flying by Earth.Peter Carril/ESA

The problem isn't just theoretical.

A house-sized asteroid streaks above the skies of Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013.AP

If it were heading towards Earth, it would be big enough to wipe out a city.

The Dimorphos asteroid compared to Rome's Colosseum.ESA-Science Office

Dimorphos is very, very far away.

This image of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) on July 27, 2022.NASA JPL DART Navigation Team

Dimorphos also orbits another asteroid.

Infographic showing the effect of DART's impact on the orbit of Dimorphos.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

The spacecraft is tiny compared to the asteroids.

NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

The spacecraft was small enough to fit in a box on a truck.

DART packed and ready to move outside of the Astrotech Space Operations processing facility.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

DART has been a relatively cheap mission.

SLS rocket on a launchpad at the Vehicle Assembly Building, September 24, 2022.NASA/Joel Kowsky

More space surveillance to detect asteroids is coming.

An artist's concept of the NEOCam asteroid-hunting mission.NASA/JPL-Caltech

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