NASA mission launched one million kg of rock into space. Completing a historic test of humanity’s ability to prevent a celestial object from killing life on Earth. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor successfully hit its target, the space asteroid Dimorphos, at 7:14 p.m. Eastern Time, ten months after blasting off from California on its groundbreaking mission (2314 GMT).

According to the space agency, more than 2 million pounds (1 million kilos) of asteroid rocks and dust have been thrown into space. Scientists estimate that there was enough material to fill six to seven rail carriages.

“The team is using that data – as well as new information on the composition of the asteroid moonlet and the characteristics of the ejecta, gained from telescope observations and images from DART’s ride-along Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) contributed by the Italian Space Agency – to learn just how much DART’s initial hit moved the asteroid, and how much came from the recoil,” NASA said in a press release.

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The #DARTMission investigation team discussed early results from DART’s impact at #AGU22, revealing that the spacecraft altered Dimorphos’ orbit by ~33 mins & displaced over 2 millions lbs of rock into space – enough to fill 6 or 7 rail cars.

Learn more: https://www.bolnews.com/technology/2022/12/nasa-mission-launched-one-million-kg-rock-in-space/amp/ pic.twitter.com/p3wTQHROfJ

— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) December 15, 2022

Although neither Dimorphos nor the larger asteroid it orbits, Didymos, pose a threat to Earth, the mission was excellent for target practice.

The momentum transferred when DART collided with Dimorphos was roughly 3.6 times greater than if the asteroid had simply absorbed the spacecraft and produced no ejecta (the many tonnes of asteroidal rock displaced and launched into space by the impact), indicating that the ejecta contributed more to moving the asteroid than the spacecraft. This is presuming that Didymos and Dimorphos have the same density.

DART, which was launched in November 2021 by a SpaceX rocket, was primarily piloted by NASA flight directors until the last hours of the journey when autonomous onboard navigation software took over.