- A probe from the US space agency Nasa has intentionally crashed into an asteroid in an attempt to change its trajectory.
- The unmanned probe of the “Dart” mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) was launched in November using a “Falcon 9” rocket from the US state of California.
- At around 1:18 a.m., NASA’s live stream showed the ground crew applauding. After that there was talk of a first success.
It still has to be calculated whether the impact changed the trajectory, according to NASA. It’s the first time a NASA probe has intentionally crashed into an asteroid. “Dart” is a first attempt to see whether it might be possible to change the trajectory of an asteroid in this way.
From the approximately 330 million US dollar mission, NASA hopes to find out how the earth could be protected from approaching asteroids. Dimorphos, a kind of moon of the asteroid Didymos with a diameter of around 160 meters, currently poses no threat to Earth, according to NASA calculations.
The mission is designed in such a way that the asteroid should not pose any danger even after the impact of the probe, which only has one camera on board. It is a first tentative attempt to see if it might be possible to alter an asteroid’s trajectory in this way.