CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -'Dart' plowed into the harmless asteroid millions of miles away shifting its orbit, NASA said Oct. 11 in announcing the results of its save-the-world test. The space agency attempted the test Sept. 26 to see if in a potential future killer rock could be nudged away from Earth. The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid Dimorphos hurling debris into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble over several thousand miles. It took days of telescope observations to determine how much the impact altered the orbit path of the 525-foot asteroid around its companion, a bigger space rock. Before the impact, the moonlet took 11 hours and 55 minutes to circle its parent asteroid. Scientists said the impact shortened the asteroid's orbit about 32 minutes. (The AP 10/22/22) Smashing success: NASA asteroid strike results in big nudge | News | wtva.com
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