Mission accomplished !
The American space agency succeeded in diverting an asteroid from its trajectory by projecting a spacecraft against its surface at the end of September during an unprecedented test mission, which was to allow humanity to learn how to protect itself from a possible future threat. , NASA announced on Tuesday.
The Dart mission ship purposely crashed into its target, the asteroid Dimorphos, which is the satellite of a larger asteroid named Didymos.
The NASA device thus managed to move it, reducing its orbit by 32 minutes, said the head of the space agency, Bill Nelson, during a press conference.
Video.
DART mission: the incredible images of the crash of a spaceship on an asteroid
At the end of September, the ship, smaller than a car, had darkened at a speed of more than 20,000 km / h on its target, reached at the scheduled time (23:14 GMT).
The NASA teams, gathered at the mission control center in Maryland, in the United States, had exploded with joy at the moment of the collision.
A few minutes before, the asteroid Dimorphos, located about 11 million kilometers from Earth, has gradually grown on the spectacular images broadcast live by the ship.
We could clearly distinguish the pebbles on its gray surface, just before the images stop at the moment of the explosion.