Direct hit in space: DART probe crashes into asteroid moon

NASA's DART spacecraft has hit the asteroid moon Dimorphos as planned. Spectacular pictures and videos show the last moments before the direct hit in space.

The goal of NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission was to deflect the orbit of the 170m-wide asteroid moon Dimorphos.

To do this, a probe had to perfectly hit the celestial body, which is 11 million km away from Earth, on a precisely pre-calculated trajectory. Last night, the mission was crowned with a direct hit in space.

This is the first time in human history that an attempt has been made to influence the trajectory of a celestial body. The asteroid did not and does not pose any danger to the Earth. The manoeuvre was merely a test for scientific purposes.

However, should an asteroid come dangerously close to Earth in the future, the findings of the DART mission could provide invaluable information for possible defence attempts.

According to estimates, there are more than 15,000 unknown asteroids crossing the Earth's orbit, which are large enough to destroy entire cities in the event of an impact.

The space probe was launched into space almost a year ago and hit the asteroid at 12.14am September 27th, BST. The spectacle was observed by the cameras of a small satellite that had previously been separated from the probe.

In addition, the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes as well as several telescopes on Earth followed the impact.

Dimorphos is the smaller body of the double asteroid Didymos. The impact of the space probe should reduce the speed of Dimorphos so that the asteroid orbits its "brother" in a smaller orbit in the future.

According to the scientists' calculations, this will shorten the orbital period of 12 hours by about 10 minutes.