Nasa crashes craft into an asteroid in test of Earth defence

An illustration of Nasa's DART spacecraft prior to impact with the Didymos binary system

Nasa spacecraft successfully crashed into an asteroid approximately 10.9 million kilometres from Earth in a test to determine if the impact can nudge the space rock slightly off course. Nasa launched its DART spacecraft in November with the purpose of colliding with an asteroid about the size of a football stadium at 22,530 km per hour. "In case you're keeping score: humanity 1, asteroids 0," Tahira Allen, a Nasa spokesperson, said during the livestream after the impact. The mission is Nasa's first demonstration of the agency's planetary-defence initiative to protect Earth from the possibility of a hazardous collision with an asteroid.