Kinetic Impact Validated for Planetary Defense

NASA’s DART mission (2022) crashed a spacecraft into the moonlet Dimorphos and follow-up stellar-occultation measurements show the binary's orbit around the Sun slowed measurably, proving a human-made kinetic strike can change an asteroid's motion. Researchers collected 22 post-impact occultation timings (including amateur observations) and infer a ~150 millisecond heliocentric orbital slowdown, confirming both the technique and the need for long-term tracking. — This validates kinetic deflection as an operational planetary-defense tool and raises policy questions about funding, international coordination, legal authority to alter small bodies, and citizen-science roles in monitoring.