Google’s googly: If you search NASA DART, it shows ‘demo’ of spacecraft collision

New Delhi: Marking a first step towards ‘safeguarding’ Planet Earth, a NASA spacecraft smashed into an asteroid at a blistering speed on Monday.

The spacecraft-asteroid collision brought cheers on the face of scientists as they erupted in joy over the historic moment.

Meanwhile, if you are curious about NASA’s DART Mission and want to know its purpose and do a google search, you will see perplexing results.

Doing a Google search about NASA’s DART mission gives a ‘demo’ of what happened in the space. An animated search engine shows a spacecraft moving over the screen and hitting the desired object. In the simulated version, your screen will also wobble after the spacecraft achieves its target.

IMPACT SUCCESS! Watch from #DARTMIssion’s DRACO Camera, as the vending machine-sized spacecraft successfully collides with asteroid Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth. pic.twitter.com/7bXipPkjWD

— NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2022

The spacecraft DART plowed into the space at about 22,500 km/hour speed and collided with the asteroid, probably leaving some imprint on it. Scientists believe that collision must have left a crater on the asteroid and thrown some dirt into space and most importantly must have altered the asteroid’s orbit.

The mission was undertaken by scientists as preparatory step to safeguard Planet Earth. It was a sort of dress rehearsal for the fateful day, if a killer rock or asteroid approaches earth.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) reached the space after flying for ten months and successfully hit the targeted asteroid on Monday.

The DART, measuring the size of a vending machine navigated to the Space via new technology developed by Johns Hopkins University scientists.