NASA spaceship deflected asteroid in test to save Earth

NASA on Tuesday said it had succeeded in deflecting an asteroid in a historic test of humanity's ability to stop an incoming cosmic object from devastating life on Earth. The fridge-sized Double Asteroid Redirection Test impactor deliberately smashed into the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, pushing it into a smaller, faster orbit around its big brother Didymos, said NASA chief Bill Nelson. Ahead of the test, NASA scientists said the results of the experiment would reveal whether the asteroid is a solid rock, or more like a "rubbish pile" of boulders bound by mutual gravity. NASA believes the best way to deploy such weapons would be at a distance, to impart force without blowing the asteroid to smithereens, which could further imperil Earth.