“For the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary body.” Two weeks after the spacecraft collided with Dimorphos, researchers determined it knocked the space rock 32 minutes off its old orbit.
, showing that the refrigerator-sized spacecraft had nudged the asteroid onto a different path.
The team would have considered a 10-minute difference a success, said NASA chief Bill Nelson. But DART actually shortened the asteroid’s orbit by a whopping 32 minutes. Dimorphos now takes only about 11 hours and 23 minutes to circle its partner, he said—a significant change, meaning that it is indeed possible to deflect a small asteroid’s path. “NASA is serious about defending the planet,” he said.
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