Last fall, the world watched as the DART spacecraft — the Double Asteroid Redirection Test — guided itself toward the asteroid Dimorphos for a direct collision, a major technical achievement and the first successful planetary defense test in history. DART targeted the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, a small body just 490 feet (150 meters) in diameter, which orbits a larger, 2,500-foot (760-meter) asteroid called Didymos. Neither asteroid threatened Earth, but the system proved to be the perfect target for the experimental mission.
As a part of NASA's overall planetary defense strategy, DART's impact with the asteroid Dimorphos demonstrated a viable mitigation technique for protecting the planet from an Earth-bound asteroid if one were discovered.
Revisit DART's triumphant collision with Dimorphos and the resulting year of science analysis and discoveries that followed through this interactive story highlighting the mission's one-year anniversary.
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