A Nasa spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed today in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth.
The galactic grand slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 9.6 million kilometres away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the small space rock at22,500 km/h. Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, alter the asteroid's orbit.
Telescopes around the world and in space aimed at the same point in the sky to capture the spectacle. Though the impact was immediately obvious — Dart's radio signal abruptly ceased — it will be days or even weeks to determine how much the asteroid's path was changed.
The US$325 million mission was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or any other natural object in space.
