13 Oct 2022

NASA's asteroid redirection project declared a success

From Nights, 10:45 pm on 13 October 2022

After two weeks of analysing the data, NASA are celebrating the success of their DART project. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test marks humanity's first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object — in this case the redirection of a stadium-sized asteroid.

Astroscience researcher and University of Waikato Teaching Fellow Dr Alista Fow joins the show to give us some insight.

This handout picture obtained by the Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube shows the intentional collision of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission with its target asteroid Dimorphos on 26 September 2022.

This handout picture obtained by the Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube shows the intentional collision of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission with its target asteroid Dimorphos on 26 September 2022. Photo: AFP / ASI / NASA