A successful experiment in protecting humanity: NASA intentionally crashed a spacecraft into the moon "Dimorphos," which orbits an asteroid more than 10 million kilometers from Earth. The crash caused a significant change in the moon's orbit. According to NASA, the results prove that such a collision can alter the trajectory of a body with a mass of billions of tons, potentially protecting against an asteroid that threatens to hit Earth.
The researchers explained that the impact’s effect was not only due to the direct hit of the spacecraft but mainly from a massive cloud of dust and rocks ejected from the asteroid—about 16 million kilograms of material, 30,000 times the mass of the spacecraft itself. This ejection acted like a natural “rocket engine,” giving Dimorphos a much stronger push than the impact alone.
In the scientific community, this success is seen as proof that similar technologies could be used by humanity in emergencies if an asteroid threatening Earth is detected. “This is the first time we have practical proof that it’s possible to change an asteroid’s trajectory,” the researchers said. This means that humanity would not be helpless in a catastrophic scenario of an asteroid impact that could destroy a large area or even lead to extinction.
Asteroids have hit Earth in the past, causing dramatic climate changes and mass extinctions. Scientific estimates suggest that the dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago following a large asteroid impact in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. If a similar impact occurs in the future, the consequences for humanity could be catastrophic. Therefore, the ability to act proactively and divert an asteroid from its path is a central goal of planetary defense programs.
However, experts emphasize that not all asteroids respond in the same way. Dimorphos is a relatively weak “pile of rocks,” so the collision released a massive amount of material. More solid asteroids may be more resistant and respond differently. Therefore, scientists stress that there is still much to learn before a fully reliable defense system can be developed.
And what about a real threat today? NASA operates advanced monitoring systems that track tens of thousands of asteroids in the solar system. Currently, no large asteroid is known to threaten Earth in the next hundred years. Some asteroids pass relatively close, but there is no evidence of a trajectory that could lead to an impact. Nevertheless, smaller asteroids hit Earth every year, usually disintegrating in the atmosphere and creating spectacular light phenomena but causing no significant damage.