“Two weeks ago, NASA made history once more. We carried out humanity’s first planetary defense test and showed the world that NASA is a serious defender of this planet,” Nelson said in presenting the conclusions of that mission.
Dimorphos (“two forms” in Greek) is a 160-meter-diameter moon-like body that revolves around the 780-meter-diameter Didymos, whose name means “twin” in Greek. They were selected by NASA because they pose no threat to Earth.