I don't know if anyone was aware this was happening tonight and/or caught the live feed. I was not aware until turning on Sling and seeing it as a recommended channel. I watched the final 15 minutes and it was great. It is really mindboggling how far we have come as a species in such a short amount of time. Today we took the first step in being able to defend ourselves from an asteroid impact. The technical knowledge and the math involved with calculating the trajectories is mindboggling to me--to be able to hit such a relatively tiny rock orbiting a slightly bigger rock is truly amazing (they are now going to measure how much they have changed the orbit of the smaller asteroid around the larger one). This is the culmination of years of work involving multiple cooperating countries. It is a good reminder of what we can do as a species when we work together for a common good. I got to watch it with my oldest son, who turned 8 today! The final images the satalite sent as it closed in on the asteroid at 4 miles a second are spectacular.
https://www.space.com/nasa-dart-aste...efense-success
"For the first time in history, a spacecraft from Earth has crashed into an asteroid to test a way to save our planet from extinction.
The spacecraft, NASA's Double Asteroid Rendezvous Test (DART) probe, slammed into a small asteroid 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth tonight (Sept. 26) in what the U.S. space agency has billed as the world's first planetary defense test. The goal: to change the orbit of the space rock — called Dimorphos — around its larger asteroid parent Didymos enough to prove humanity could deflect a dangerous asteroid if one was headed for Earth."
https://www.space.com/nasa-dart-aste...efense-success
"For the first time in history, a spacecraft from Earth has crashed into an asteroid to test a way to save our planet from extinction.
The spacecraft, NASA's Double Asteroid Rendezvous Test (DART) probe, slammed into a small asteroid 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth tonight (Sept. 26) in what the U.S. space agency has billed as the world's first planetary defense test. The goal: to change the orbit of the space rock — called Dimorphos — around its larger asteroid parent Didymos enough to prove humanity could deflect a dangerous asteroid if one was headed for Earth."
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