In 2022, the DART satellite was slammed into the surface of the Dimorphos asteroid at speeds exceeding 22,000 km/h. The mission was conducted to see if the technique of slamming the vending machine-sized DART into the 170-meter-wide surface of Dimorphos would change its direction.
NASA this week published a final report confirming that the DART impact technique was the first human success in deflecting a space object from its orbit around the sun.
Not only was Dimorphos' orbit changed, the orbit of its nearby parent asteroid Didymos was also successfully changed. Overall, the orbits of both asteroids are now changing at a rate of 1.7 inches per hour. Although this change is small, if given time it could deflect an asteroid on its way to Earth in the future.
This makes the plot of the movie Armageddon much easier. In fact, there is no need to send oil rig workers drilling for an asteroid to plant nuclear weapons. Humans just need to detonate a nuclear weapon to deflect the asteroid's course.
