NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which involved crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid, has been confirmed as a success by an investigation team led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. The mission demonstrated that the "kinetic impactor" technique of deflecting asteroids could be effective in protecting the planet. The mission altered the orbit of asteroid moonlet Dimorphos by 33 minutes, demonstrating that asteroids with a diameter of around half a mile can be deflected by this method. However, earthlings will need sufficient warning time to mitigate any potential threat. Currently, there are no known asteroids posing a threat to Earth for at least the next century.
