NASA might have found a way for Earth to avoid a doomsday scenario from an asteroid.
The space agency has confirmed that crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid could alter its trajectory, thus protecting Earth from disaster.
NASA last year crashed a spacecraft into the 525-foot asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in an attempt to alter the moonlet's orbit around a larger asteroid.
In October, NASA reported that Dimorphos' orbit was altered by the impact.
"All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it's the only one we have," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. "This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us. NASA has proven we are serious as a defender of the planet.
"This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and all of humanity, demonstrating commitment from NASA's exceptional team and partners from around the world."
No known asteroid poses a threat to Earth for at least the next century, the San Antonio Express-News reported. Still, NASA wants to be prepared.
Before the spacecraft's impact, it took Dimorphos 11 hours, 55 minutes to orbit its larger parent asteroid, Didymos.
Since the intentional collision with Dimorphos on Sept. 26, NASA has confirmed the spacecraft's impact altered Dimorphos' orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes.
Before the collision during the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), NASA had defined a minimum successful orbit period change of Dimorphos as change of 73 seconds or more. Early data showed that was surpassed by more than 25 times.
"This result is one important step toward understanding the full effect of DART's impact with its target asteroid," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters in Washington. "As new data comes in each day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether, and how, a mission like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from a collision with an asteroid if we ever discover one headed our way."
On March 1, four papers published in the journal Nature explained how NASA's test and others like it could be effective at altering the trajectory of an asteroid.
Early detection of the asteroid is a key factor, the Express-News reported.
"The results demonstrate how successful the kinetic impactor technique can be — paving the way for a bright future for planetary defense," Jason Kalirai, civil space mission area executive at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory that led the DART team, said in a news release.