Nasa has successfully crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid as part of a planetary protection test mission.While this asteroid – named Dimorphos – posed no threat to Earth, the aim of the mission was to demonstrate that dangerous incoming rocks can be deflected by deliberately smashing into them.
“IMPACT SUCCESS!” Nasa tweeted after its spacecraft, known as Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart), collided with the 170-metre wide (560ft) asteroid about 00:20 UK time on Tuesday.
