The US space agency confirms that its latest attempt to alter the trajectory of an asteroid was successful.
NASA's Dart probe hit Dimorphos, a small asteroid 160 meters in diameter, to deflect its trajectory, in the first planetary defense experiment designed to protect Earth from future threatening asteroids.
As the probe approached its target, the camera sent increasingly detailed images of the celestial body's surface to Earth, 13 million kilometers from Earth. With each image, the excitement grew in NASA's Control Center, to a standing ovation that greeted him.
The DART mission, or Dual Asteroid Redirect Test, began 10 months ago. Dimorphos was a small asteroid orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Didymos.
The asteroid posed no threat to Earth, making it a perfect target to test a kinetic impactor, which may be necessary if a celestial body is ever on track to hit Earth.