Earth aims DART to knock asteroid off course; now all eyes are on the sky

Scientists will be watching through the next several weeks to see how effective the impact was

Today, early morning, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully crashed a vehicle into a double asteroid system. Scientists will wait with bated breath to see if those two rocks are shifted from the orbit they were following.

This DART (Double Asteroid Redirection System) mission is a first attempt to develop the capability to protect the Earth from being hit by large meteors. It is a proof of concept demonstration – the target asteroids are not on a path that intersects the Earth’s.

Hundreds of meteors slice into the Earth’s orbit on a daily basis. Most burn