Can We Really Deflect an Asteroid by Crashing Into It? Nobody Knows, but We Are Excited to Try

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft crash into asteroid Dimorphos at 24,000 kilometres per hour on September 26. Launched from Earth in November 2021, DART is about the size of a bus and was created to test and prove our ability to defend the Earth from a dangerous asteroid.