NASA’s DART spacecraft has crashed at full speed into the Dimorphos asteroid to deflect its trajectory in space, in what is humanity’s first test to defend the Earth from the collision of future space objects.

At 01:14 a.m. on Tuesday, (local time in the eastern United States), the spacecraft crashed at a speed of 6.4 kilometers per second into the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos, located about 11 million kilometers from Earth.

Timelapse video of NASA's DART spacecraft impacting an asteroid for science. pic.twitter.com/6h88wcGjYc

— Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight) September 26, 2022

Although the impact could be seen on NASA’s live broadcast, scientists will have to wait days or even weeks to observe whether the unmanned spacecraft has managed to slightly alter the asteroid’s orbit.

-Thailand News (TN)