Dimorphos: Nasa flies spacecraft into asteroid in direct hit

The American space agency’s Dart probe has smashed into an asteroid, destroying itself in the process.

The collision was intentional and designed to test whether space rocks that might threaten Earth could be nudged safely out of the way.

Dart’s camera returned an image per second, right up to the moment of impact with the target – a 160m-wide object called Dimorphos.

What had been a steady image stream cut out as the probe was obliterated.

R&I – FS