Scientists are ecstatic after NASA hits an asteroid in historic test

A NASA spacecraft successfully deflected an asteroid's orbit on Monday by hitting with it seven million miles away, passing a historic test of humankind's capacity to prevent a celestial object from destroying life on Earth.

Ten months after taking off from California on its ground-breaking mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impactor successfully hit its target, the space asteroid Dimorphos, at 7:14 pm Eastern Time (2314 GMT).

According to Lori Glaze, head of NASA's planetary science division, "we're entering a new era, one in which we could be able to defend ourselves from something like a dangerous hazardous asteroid impact."