NEW YORK, United States — Four years ago, NASA purposely smashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid to see if they could deflect it — a test to prove humanity could protect Earth from threatening space rocks. The experiment pushed the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos into a smaller, faster route around its sibling Didymos — and according to new research out Friday, it also pushed the pair into a slightly different orbit around the Sun. The test on Dimorphos was never based on any actual threat to our planet. But the successful experiment and additional analysis offers a solid data point […]... Keep on reading: NASA defense test kicked asteroid off course