NASA spacecraft successfully hit an asteroid, a key step in the first planetary defense experiment

CTOnews.com, September 27 (Xinhua)-- NASA's twin asteroid redirection test (DART) mission spacecraft successfully hit an asteroid "Dimorphos" at 07:14 et on Monday.

NASA said the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid Twin, which is the size of a football field and poses no threat to Earth. The impact is designed to test and verify ways to protect Earth in the event of an asteroid impact.

CTOnews.com learned that NASA is conducting further verification, and they would like to see the orbit of the asteroid accelerate after the collision, but the extent to which the behavior of the asteroid matches the computer model remains to be seen.

NASA has completed its on-site plan for the Applied Physics Lab Mission Operations Center, but announced that a press conference will be held at 8 p.m. EDT, that is, 8 a.m. Beijing time tomorrow (September 28).

The twin star is relatively small, with a diameter of 160m, and the asteroid is not really visible until the collision. The twin star and another Didymos, which is 780m in diameter, form a binary system.