In an unprecedented test aimed at teaching humanity how to prevent cosmic bodies from destroying life on Earth, a spacecraft ofUS space agency, NASA On Monday, an asteroid was deliberately launched with the aim of diverting its course.
In details, the spacecraft, which is slightly less than the size of a car, as expected, at 23:14 GMT, collided with the asteroid at a speed of more than 20 thousand km / h.
And the US space agency transmitted the facts of this collision directly on the air.
As soon as the spacecraft hit the asteroid, the NASA crew members who gathered at the mission supervision center in Maryland, in the United States, exploded with joy.
And “NASA” carried out the experiment in a precedent of its kind that had not happened before, as its spacecraft approached the asteroid at a high speed.
At a cost of $325 million
It is noteworthy that the cost of the mission was 325 million dollars, in what is the first attempt to change the position or path of an asteroid or any other natural object in space.
The target of the collision was an asteroid with a circumference of 160 meters, called Demorphos, which is actually the smaller twin of another asteroid, Didymos 65803, which is a fast-rotating asteroid.
The two asteroids have been orbiting the sun for eons, without posing a threat to the Earth, which makes them ideal candidates for the test of saving the world.