A NASA spacecraft was successfully sent into orbit and collided with the previously unknown asteroid Dimorphous. The DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) project, NASA’s first planetary defense mission, captured the interest of people all around the world because it was designed to keep mankind from meeting the same demise as the dinosaurs—getting splattered by an asteroid.

NASA says that this is a meteoroid striking Mars.

The DART investigation team steps in at this point. The team will examine photographs and data over the next six to twelve months to ascertain whether the hit had any impact before major funding ends.

“Now we have to determine how big of a deflection we truly made. to truly assess how much of a push we gave it, which can be a crucial piece of the puzzle in determining how to construct a mission that was going to try to deflect something, “Ernst added.

“So, do you require a quicker response? You require a larger item. Do you require two? Is one enough or are one too many? and sort of giving that aspect of things some thought.”

Even though there isn’t an asteroid that is immediately threatening Earth, there will likely be one in the future, making this research essential.

According to statistics, the Earth will be hit by something at some point simply because if there is enough material in space and you wait for decades or millions of years, something will strike you, said Ernst.

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Don’t worry, Ernst says it’s improbable that an asteroid will strike Earth in our lifetime. But you should always err on the side of caution, right? That’s what the dinosaurs would have said, at least, in my opinion.

Ernst said, “Of course, you know, dinosaurs didn’t have the luxury of being able to put up a plan, but we can start, and so this is — the first step.”

The team will make use of its telescopes, including the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and Lucy Space Probe, to determine how much the asteroid has actually moved since the impact. We’ll see those photographs as they arrive.