For the first time in history, a spacecraft was able to change the trajectory of a large celestial body, reported BBC.
NASA's DART spacecraft collided with the asteroid's moon Dimorph and “knocked” it out of its original orbit. Because of this, the satellite was much closer to its “parent” asteroid, and its orbital time was reduced by 32 minutes, although it was originally planned that it would decrease by only 10 minutes.
The mission was conceived as a test of a strategy to protect the Earth from space threats from large space objects. According to scientists, such a method of protection can be effective if it is carried out early enough and the object is not too massive.
Dimorph is a satellite of the asteroid Didymos and has a width of 160 meters. In the event of a collision with the Earth's surface, it could destroy a large city. The cost of the operation was 330 million USD.
