A SpaceX rocket blasted off from California late on Tuesday as Nasa seeks to demonstrate a first-of-its-kind planetary defence system, designed to deflect an asteroid from a potential doomsday collision with Earth.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or Dart, will test Nasa's ability to alter an asteroid's trajectory with kinetic force - crashing a robot spacecraft into it at high speed and nudging the space boulder just enough to keep our planet out of harm's way.

Dart's target is a tiny fraction of the size of the cataclysmic Chicxulub asteroid that slammed into Earth about 66 million years ago, killing most of the planet's animal species. It is not on a path that will cause it to hit Earth in the foreseeable future.

But scientists say smaller asteroids are far more common and pose a far greater theoretical threat to Earth in the near term.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/24/nasa-launches-mission-avert-future-doomsday-asteroid-collision/

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