Video | The network of telescopes that captured the impact of the DART probe and other keys to the mission

NASA took a first step on Tuesday so that humanity has an anti-asteroid shield.

For the first time, the space organization has tried for the first time to deflect an asteroid by launching a probe against it.

The mission has achieved its objective of colliding head-on and at more than 20,000 kilometers per hour with the Dimorphic asteroid, located about 11 million kilometers from Earth.

The impact has been followed almost live - the signal takes 38 seconds to arrive - from the control center of the Institute of Applied Physics at Johns Hopkins University, which has developed DART.

In the video that accompanies this news, the editor of Materia, Nuño Domínguez, answers these questions about this new space feat:

- Why is it a great revolution for humanity?

- What effects could the impact of an asteroid considered medium (more than 140 meters) have on the Earth?

- Once the impact is achieved, how will we know if it has managed to vary its trajectory?

- Does this suppose the beginning of an industry of protection of the planet Earth?