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Loading contentCrashing a spacecraft into an asteroid at high speed to nudge its orbit — and getting an extra push from the plume of debris thrown off. NASA's DART did exactly this to the moonlet Dimorphos in 2022, measurably shortening its orbit; ESA's Hera is on its way to study the result up close, arriving in late 2026.
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Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
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