NASA successfully crashes a spacecraft into an asteroid in the first planetary defense test

MADRID, 27 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

NASA has managed this Monday to carry out a planned collision against an asteroid in what has been the first planetary defense test with the aim of slightly deviating the cosmic object from its orbit.

"Successful impact!", NASA has celebrated, in a message on the social network Twitter in which it has attached a video in which the test carried out is observed.

"Watch from the DART mission's DRACO camera as the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collides with the Dimorphos asteroid, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth."

The asteroid is a body 160 meters in diameter, which revolves around a larger body, 780 meters, called Didymos.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was the agency's first attempt to move an asteroid in space.

"As part of NASA's overall planetary defense strategy, the DART impact with the asteroid Dimorphos demonstrates a viable mitigation technique to protect the planet from an Earth-bound asteroid or comet, if one is discovered," The US government agency explained in a statement.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has called the test "unprecedentedly successful." "It is also a mission of unity with real benefit to all of humanity," he added.

"As NASA studies the cosmos and our home planet, we're also working to protect that home, and this international collaboration turned science fiction into science fact, demonstrating a way to protect Earth," said Nelson.