Telescope captures NASA spacecraft smashing into asteroid

A telescope in South Africa has captured a new view of NASA's Dart spacecraft slamming into an asteroid yesterday.

The images were recorded by a NASA funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System telescope based in South Africa.

It shows a side view of the NASA DART spacecraft impacting the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in a bid to redirect it.

At a post-impact press conference yesterday, the team behind the DART missions said it went almost faultlessly – none of the planned 21 contingencies had to be used.

“As far as we can tell our first planetary defence test was a success,” said Dr Elena Adams, DART Mission Systems Engineer.

“I think earthlings should sleep a bit better tonight.”