NASA demonstrates humanity may be able to stop an Earth-bound asteroid

A NASA spacecraft that smashed into an asteroid on purpose didn't just knock one rock off its course. It also nudged the orbit of the entire asteroid system it belongs to, a new study shows.

Researchers found that the impact from NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission altered the path of the asteroid pair Didymos and Dimorphos around the sun. The discovery further confirms the space agency's asteroid target practice as a valid planetary defense technique for moving a hazardous object off a collision course...